UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage Site reads:[2] Shark Bay's waters, islands and peninsulas....have a number of exceptional natural features, including one of the largest and most diverse seagrass beds in the world.

A considerable number of Aboriginal midden sites have been found, especially on Peron Peninsula and Dirk Hartog Island which provide evidence of some of the foods gathered from the waters and nearby land areas.

[6] Commercial whaling was conducted in the bay in the first half of the 20th century by Norwegian-owned factory ships and their catcher vessels.

Peron Peninsula divides the bay and is the home of its largest settlements as well as a National Park at the northern end.

In 1616, Dirk Hartog landed at Inscription Point on the north end of the island and marked his discovery with a pewter plate, inscribed with the date and nailed to a post.

Bernier and Dorre islands in the north-west corner of the heritage area are among the last-remaining habitats of two varieties of Australian mammals, hare-wallabies, threatened with extinction.

In 1999 the Australian Wildlife Conservancy acquired the 5,816-hectare (14,370-acre) pastoral lease over Faure Island, off Monkey Mia.

Sea turtles nest there seasonally and are the subject of studies conducted in conjunction with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

It is home to about 10,000 dugongs ('sea cows'), around 12.5% of the world's population,[12] and there are many Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, particularly at Monkey Mia.

The largest fish in the world, the whale shark, gathers in the bay during the April and May full moons.

Seagrasses are the basis of the food chain in Shark Bay, providing home and shelter to various marine species and attracting the dugong population.

In Shark Bay's hot, dry climate, evaporation greatly exceeds the annual precipitation rate.

[16][17][18] These microbialites, a type of sedimentary structure, are modern examples of some of the earliest signs of life on Earth,[19] with fossilized stromatolites being found dating from 3.5 billion years ago at North Pole near Marble Bar, in Western Australia, and are considered the type of fossil with the longest continuous presence in the geological record.

[1] It is hypothesized that some stromatolites contain a new form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll f.[20] Facilities around the World Heritage area, provided by the Shire of Shark Bay and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, include the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre in Denham which provides interactive displays and comprehensive information about the features of the region.

The Shark Bay area has three bioregions within the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) system: Carnarvon, Geraldton Sandplains, and Yalgoo.