How do you actually get onto Dirk Hartog Island?

Two practical routes. The Hartog Explorer landing barge from Shelter Bay at Steep Point carries one 4WD and trailer at a time across the South Passage in around 15 minutes, running 1 March to 30 November in a morning window that shifts by month. Bookings are essential and it does not sail every day, so confirm your day with the operator. Or board a ferry from Denham — Island Life Adventures and the Eco Lodge run separate services across the inner Shark Bay side. Charter flights from Monkey Mia airfield reach the island airstrip in around 20 minutes for fly-in stays.

Is the fishing as good as Steep Point?

Different rather than better or worse. The western coast of Dirk Hartog has the same Gascoyne pelagic palette as Steep Point but with a wider variety of fishable corners — Surf Point, Notch Point, Withnell Point, Sandy Point — and the eastern Shark Bay side adds calmer beach and small-boat options that Steep Point doesn't. Most multi-day trips fish both islands, using the barge to swap sides as the weather dictates.

Are the sanctuary zones really that strict?

Yes. Dirk Hartog sits inside the Shark Bay World Heritage Area and the Shark Bay Marine Park, with sanctuary zones covering significant stretches of both the western and eastern coasts. Penalties for fishing inside a sanctuary zone run to thousands of dollars and zones are camera-monitored. Use the Marine Parks WA app for live GPS overlay and verify each drift before you cast.

Does the West Coast demersal closure apply?

No — Dirk Hartog is in the Gascoyne Coast bioregion, managed separately. The Gascoyne mixed demersal daily bag is 4 fish with tighter per-species caps within that total, plus species-specific size limits. Shark Bay inner-gulf pink snapper closures apply separately and are zone-specific; Dirk Hartog straddles those inner-gulf zones, so verify which side you are fishing before targeting snapper. Rules continue to evolve — check DPIRD before each trip.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay)

Sat 19 Sep 2026 · Australia/Perth

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📍 Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay)

first quarter · 49%

Weather: Sunny Wind: S 192° · 15 km/h Swell: 2.4 m @ 10 s SW Water: 22.1 °C Pressure: 1022.9 hPa ↑ rising

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind S 15 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 22.1 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Now

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:57 am Last light 6:44 pm

High 1:00 am Low 11:00 am

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 am → 7:30 am

Good

6:00 pm → 8:00 pm

Good

11:00 am → 12:00 pm

First light

5:57 am

Last light

6:44 pm

Sunrise

6:20 am

Sunset

6:22 pm

Moonrise

11:33 am

Moonset

1:09 am

High tide

1:00 am

Low tide

11:00 am

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

19°

↙︎

220°

20 km/h

1am

☀️

19°

↙︎

217°

22 km/h

2am

☀️

19°

↙︎

214°

22 km/h

3am

☀️

18°

↙︎

211°

20 km/h

4am

☀️

18°

↙︎

207°

19 km/h

5am

☀️

18°

↙︎

204°

17 km/h

6am

☀️

19°

↓︎

202°

15 km/h

7am

☀️

19°

↓︎

197°

15 km/h

8am

☀️

20°

↓︎

192°

15 km/h

Now

☀️

21°

↓︎

188°

15 km/h

10am

☀️

21°

↓︎

183°

14 km/h

11am

☀️

22°

↓︎

186°

13 km/h

12pm

☀️

22°

↓︎

190°

15 km/h

1pm

☀️

22°

↓︎

194°

16 km/h

2pm

☀️

22°

↓︎

193°

17 km/h

3pm

☀️

22°

↓︎

191°

18 km/h

4pm

☀️

21°

↓︎

192°

18 km/h

5pm

☀️

21°

↓︎

192°

20 km/h

6pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

192°

21 km/h

7pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

191°

22 km/h

8pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

185°

22 km/h

9pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

181°

22 km/h

10pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

180°

22 km/h

11pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

177°

20 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 2.0 → 2.6 m SW

12am

2.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

1am

1.9 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

2am

1.9 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

3am

2.0 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Solid

4am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

5am

2.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

6am

2.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

7am

2.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

8am

2.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

Now

2.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

10am

2.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

11am

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

12pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

1pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

2pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

3pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

4pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

5pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

6pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

7pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

8pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

9pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

10pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

11pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 22.1°

Wed

16 Sep

21.8°

Thu

17 Sep

22.1°

Fri

18 Sep

22.0°

Sat

19 Sep

22.1°

Sun

20 Sep

21.9°

Mon

21 Sep

21.9°

Tue

22 Sep

21.9°

Wed

23 Sep

21.8°

Thu

24 Sep

21.8°

Fri

25 Sep

21.8°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 15 km/h S (192°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Open in the full fishing map (beta) →

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 am → 7:30 am

Good

6:00 pm → 8:00 pm

Good

11:00 am → 12:00 pm

First light

5:57 am

Last light

6:44 pm

Sunrise

6:20 am

Sunset

6:22 pm

Moonrise

11:33 am

Moonset

1:09 am

High tide

1:00 am

Low tide

11:00 am

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Weekly Bite Forecast

Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay) + nearby Perth spots. Thursday 6pm — top windows, conditions, what's biting.

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