Holiday makers come here to soak up the sun and swim in the azure sea. But every March, on a neap tide and under a full moon, the water turns a cloudy, deep pink. The coral spawns at night and on a neap tide because there are fewer predators around. The mass of eggs can drift out to sea, enabling some of the larvae to find a suitable place to stop and grow. Although the reef is home to a wondrous array of animals, including delicate worms, beautiful sea slugs and fish of many colours, whale sharks are its most impressive visitors.
Whale sharks sift tiny organisms from the sea.
Millions of coral eggs provide them with mouthfuls of nutritious food and they are most often found round Ningaloo during the coral spawning season. A myriad of tiny fish and blizzards of predatory worms also gather to feed on the abundance of eggs. A Fish called Grunion Halfway round the world, in California, the same March moon dictates events on another beach . Huge shoals of small fish, called grunion, spawn under the influence of the moon. They breed only at the highest tideline.