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)

Mon 09 Nov 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated 2:00pm AWST

Bite Alert

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9 Nov

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Today Tomorrow Sat 7 Nov

📍 Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay)

new · 1%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: S 179° · 33 km/h Swell: 1.2 m @ 12 s SW Water: 20.8 °C Pressure: 1015.4 hPa ↓ falling Faces several ways: wind direction isn't scored here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 7:00 pm

Solunar Minor window

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind S 37 km/h

Moon new all day

Water temp 20.8 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:08 am Last light 7:13 pm

Low 5:12 am High 12:00 pm High 9:20 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:30 pm → 8:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

4:30 am → 6:30 am

Good

11:30 am → 1:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

11:30 pm → 12:00 am

30m

First light

5:08 am

Last light

7:13 pm

Sunrise

5:33 am

Sunset

6:49 pm

Moonrise

5:06 am

Moonset

6:56 pm

Low tide

5:12 am

High tide

12:00 pm

High tide

9:20 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

20°

↓︎

174°

37 km/h

1am

☁️

20°

↓︎

174°

37 km/h

2am

☁️

20°

↓︎

173°

37 km/h

3am

☁️

20°

↓︎

172°

34 km/h

4am

☁️

20°

↓︎

170°

34 km/h

5am

☁️

20°

↓︎

168°

33 km/h

6am

☁️

20°

↓︎

167°

33 km/h

7am

☁️

20°

↓︎

166°

32 km/h

8am

☁️

21°

↓︎

166°

32 km/h

9am

☁️

21°

↓︎

168°

32 km/h

10am

☁️

21°

↓︎

171°

32 km/h

11am

☁️

22°

↓︎

175°

33 km/h

12pm

☁️

22°

↓︎

179°

33 km/h

1pm

☁️

23°

↓︎

182°

34 km/h

2pm

☀️

23°

↓︎

184°

35 km/h

3pm

☁️

22°

↓︎

185°

35 km/h

4pm

☁️

22°

↓︎

185°

36 km/h

5pm

☁️

21°

↓︎

185°

36 km/h

6pm

☁️

21°

↓︎

185°

37 km/h

7pm

☁️

20°

↓︎

185°

37 km/h

8pm

☁️

20°

↓︎

184°

37 km/h

9pm

☁️

20°

↓︎

184°

36 km/h

10pm

☁️

20°

↓︎

183°

36 km/h

11pm

☁️

20°

↓︎

183°

35 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 0.7 → 1.6 m SW

12am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

1am

0.8 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

2am

0.9 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.9 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

4am

1.0 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

5am

1.0 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

6am

1.1 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

7am

1.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

8am

1.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

9am

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

10am

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

11am

1.2 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

12pm

1.2 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

1pm

1.3 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

2pm

1.3 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

3pm

1.3 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

4pm

1.4 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

5pm

1.4 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

6pm

1.4 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

7pm

1.4 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

8pm

1.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

9pm

1.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

10pm

1.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

11pm

1.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 20.8°

Fri

6 Nov

21.1°

Sat

7 Nov

21.1°

Sun

8 Nov

21.1°

Mon

9 Nov

20.8°

Tue

10 Nov

20.7°

Wed

11 Nov

20.8°

Thu

12 Nov

20.8°

Fri

13 Nov

—

Sat

14 Nov

—

Sun

15 Nov

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 33 km/h S (179°).

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

Open in the full fishing map →

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:30 pm → 8:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

4:30 am → 6:30 am

Good

11:30 am → 1:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

11:30 pm → 12:00 am

30m

First light

5:08 am

Last light

7:13 pm

Sunrise

5:33 am

Sunset

6:49 pm

Moonrise

5:06 am

Moonset

6:56 pm

Low tide

5:12 am

High tide

12:00 pm

High tide

9:20 pm

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

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