Ningaloo Outlook
Spectacular Ningaloo
Did you know, the word “Ningaloo” is aboriginal and means “Deep Water”, probably due to the close proximity of the reef to the coast. According to the Yinigudura people, the word “Ningaloo” also means “land jutting out to sea”.
Ningaloo Reef is the largest fringing coral reef on the west coast of any continent in the world, extending over 300 km. The reef is home to a range of marine life with the shallow lagoons and deeper offshore waters creating a diverse array of habitats.
To increase the ecological understanding of the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area’s deep and shallow reefs and the reef’s shark and turtle populations, CSIRO and BHP formed a strategic marine research partnership, Ningaloo Outlook.
The Woodside-CSIRO Ningaloo Outlook (Phase 2) marine research partnership is investing AUD$7.0 million over five years into further developing new knowledge about the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area. This project is an extension to the Ningaloo Outlook project (BHP – CSIRO), which ran for five years, between 2015 – 2020 and invested AUD$5.4 million.
Expected outcomes
Ningaloo Outlook expects to deliver:
- Ecological assessments on the status of the ecological values
Locations of field research activities for Ningaloo Outlook.
- New knowledge and better understanding of the ecology of Ningaloo reef to inform conservation and management
- Community engagement to build capacity and understanding within the local community of Exmouth
- Training opportunities for the next generation of scientists to become world-class researchers
- Create science knowledge transfer opportunities and meet with the people who are responsible for managing the Ningaloo Marine Park and World Heritage Area
You can access data collected on the shallow reefs using the shallow reefs data portal and also track the movement of turtles tagged during the project at turtleView. All metadata associated with the research themes of the Ningaloo Outlook project, will be available via the CSIRO Marlin system with data generated by the project accessed via the CSIRO Data Archive Portal .
