Wooramel Seagrass Bank is a large deposit of carbonate sediment, a sand bank, formed by diverse communities of seagrasses off the coast of Carnarvon, Western Australia.
The mattes of seagrass meadows and stands consolidate a shallow platform of sandy substrate by acting as an organic baffle against currents and tides.
These colonies provide food and shelter to many of the species within the Shark Bay Marine Park.
The bank occurs in the eastern most bay of the Shark Bay World Heritage area. It is a structure 129 kilometres long and around 8 kilometres wide, comprising various communities on sand plains, tidal channels and other coastal habitats. The space taken up is 1030 km², making it the largest seagrass bank in the world.
The marine fauna associated with the bank – including fish, crustaceans and echinoderms – are diverse and numerous. These indirectly contribute to the forming of the bank; the baffle effect of the seagrass communities trap the carbonate deposits of their organisms remains.
The endangered Dugong, represented by one of largest remaining populations (over 500 individuals), forages along the Wooramel bank.
According to en.wikipedia
