Exmouth and Coral Bay, Western Australia, Australia
Ningaloo Reef
260km fringing reef running along a remote stretch of the Western Australian coast, close enough to shore to swim to, best known for a whale shark aggregation that is a licensed snorkel activity rather than a dive.
- Whale shark
- Reef manta ray
- Pelagics
Best season
Best May–Sep
Minimum cert
Open Water
Water
21–29°C
Current
mild
Season
When this place works
Diving and snorkelling continue year-round, but the whale shark tour fleet only operates March to June or August depending on the base, and the humpback swims July to October. Nov-Feb is the Australian summer wet and cyclone season on this…
Why dive here
What this place is known for
01pelagicWhale shark aggregation
SNORKEL ONLY. This is the single most important field in the record. The whale shark season is a tightly licensed surface swim: spotter aircraft locate the animal, the boat holds off, and groups of up to 10 swimmers enter with a guide. Scuba is not how this…
Seasonality — absentabsentshouldershoulderpeakpeakshouldershoulderoffoffabsentabsent
02wreckExmouth Navy Pier
Surprise relative to the headline, and a big one. Ningaloo is booked entirely on whale sharks, and the Navy Pier is regularly rated among the best shore dives in the world: a working military jetty whose pylons are packed with soft coral, sponges,…
03pelagicYear-round reef mantas
Also under-marketed. Mantas with wingspans reported to 8m are present in the Coral Bay lagoon in every month, unlike the whale sharks, and unlike almost every other manta destination in this dataset there is no season to plan around.
Marine life
Twelve-month species timelines
Tours run March to end of June from Coral Bay and to August from Exmouth, with sightings sometimes continuing into October and, in recent years, early November. Peak May-June. Unbaited: the animals…
Year-round in the Coral Bay lagoon. Wingspans reported to 8m.
Jul-Oct, over 40,000 animals annually on the Western Australian migration.
A resident individual at the Navy Pier known locally as the BFG, at around 15m.
Conditions
What the water is like
Water temp
21–29°C
15°C — 32°C
Visibility
3–20 m
0 m — 40 m
Current
mild
mild — strong
Thermoclines
Not typical
unlikely
Minimum certification — Open Water
Undemanding for the most part: shallow lagoon, mild current, warm water, and sources state all certification levels are catered for including snorkellers and freedivers. Two specific caveats. Navy Pier visibility is genuinely poor at 3-10m…
Entries — shore, boat
Logistics
How people dive it
1 day
snorkel
The whale shark and humpback swims. Licensed operators only, spotter aircraft, up to 10 swimmers in the water at a time from boats of…
1-10 days
scuba
Navy Pier is a shore dive but is not casually accessible: one operator holds it, dives are timed to slack tide, and identity verification…
3-10 days
scuba
Boat diving to the Muiron Islands and Lighthouse Bay out of Exmouth, plus lagoon and outer-reef sites from Coral Bay.
1-10 days
snorkel
The lagoon fringing reef sits 2-4m deep metres from the beach, with coral bommies swimmable directly from shore at Oyster Stacks,…
Operators
Who to book with
Loading operators…
Sources & verification
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