Monkey Mia Yacht Charters is an accredited eco tourism operator with a commitment to the sustainability of our unique environment.

The Shark Bay World Heritage Area

We are committed to the protection and preservation of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. The area encompasses some of Australia’s most amazing natural assets and is one of the world’s most unique eco systems. Please visit the Shark Bay World Heritage website to find out more about the area and its significance.

Eco Certification

Monkey Mia Yacht Charters Pty. Ltd. is committed to eco tourism and its eco wildlife cruises aboard ‘Aristocat 2’ have been certified by Ecotourism Australia.

Eco tourism is defined as being: “Ecologically sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that foster environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation.”

The Eco Certification program has been developed by the tourism industry to identify genuine ecotourism products which offer insights into Australia’s natural areas with absolute minimal impact. We have to meet stringent criteria to ensure that we always operate with the best interests of the environment at heart.

Eco Tourism is responsible Tourism in a natural area that offers interesting ways to learn about the environment with an operator that uses resources wisely, contributes to the conservation of the environment and helps local communities. Choosing a tourism product that displays one of the Eco Certification logos means you will enjoy an experience with a quality, environmentally sensitive operator.

Monkey Mia Yacht Charters also has the Tourism Council of Western Australia’s tick of approval. This ensures that our business has a very high standard of accreditation in the Australian tourism industry.

Our eco cruise guests are encouraged to provide feedback regarding their cruise experiences via the Guest Comments book on board "Aristocat 2", completing a Cruise Feedback Questionnaire, or they may write to us via post or email. We really take a lot of notice of this kind of feedback because it helps us to continually improve the quality of our ecotourism marine life cruises.

Minimising our environmental impact

We operate in a sustainable manner minimising our impact on native species and ecological communities. We have conducted a full Environmental Risk Assessment which is reviewed annually to ensure it is up to date. In this, we have identified key areas to be proactively managed. Specific initiatives we undertake include:

• briefing new staff via a special induction program as to the key areas of sensitivity, as well as emergency procedures for dealing with potential environmental emergencies should this ever eventuate

• minimising our interactions with mothers and calves, and breeding couples, and keeping interactions with individual wildlife to a maximum of 15 minutes

• minimising the use of engines in relatively shallow waters to ensure little disturbance to the substrate

• observing wildlife from an appropriate minimum interaction distance (as per the Code of Conduct 6.19a. and 6.19b.)

• customers are advised to keep noise to a minimum if the wildlife choose to approach the vessel, and to minimise rapid or sudden movement

• route rotation policy to ensure repeated disturbance of wildlife is minimised

• using recycled toilet paper, non-phosphate detergents, scrubbing decks with salt water, recycling aluminium cans etc

• prohibiting the feeding of wildlife

• MMYC has consistently and proactively attempted to minimise the impact of the noise associated with its operations on the marine animals it interacts with during its tours. In 2006, MMYC committed over $100,000 to a major refit to minimise the potential impact of engine noise on marine mammals encountered during our interaction tours, including dolphins, dugongs and whales

  • Diesel engines increased in size to enable running at lower revs to decrease noise impact (and reduce fuel consumption)

  • The boat propellers have been pitched by computer scan to maximise their performance and lessen underwater noise

  • The engine rooms have been insulated using the ‘Soundguard Soundsorber’ sound barrier material
    o Redesigning and reengineering the catamaran’s hulls and keels so the boat sails higher in the water to minimise drag and lessen power required to move the vessel

  • We have fitted a Code Zero sail with 150 square metres of sail area which has allowed us to sail with winds as low as 5 knots and reduced our engine usage by one third

• Passengers are actively encouraged to use the toilet facilities onshore prior to departure, to minimise the impact of their sewage on the water quality in Shark Bay Marine Park

• When passengers do make use of the toilet facilities during the course of a cruise, ribbed sullage tanks are designed to break up the sewage so there are no obvious floating solids and disintegrate the toilet paper.

• Solar panels are used for power with the engines only used as a backup

• Washing with seawater is our preferred method of cleaning, and when necessary to use other cleaning products we clean with Australian made nitrate and phosphate free cleaning products

• We operate by filling one cruise before opening bookings for the second cruise of the day, this minimises disturbance of the marine environment.

• We request that all rubbish be returned to the galley for disposal or recycling by crew

• We run on a paperless office principle with only essential printing taking place. We use all printed material for scrap paper when it is no longer required and print both sides to minimise paper usage

Respecting the local Aboriginal Culture

We respect and engage with the local Aboriginal people and actively encourage their involvement in the development of our product.

We have consulted with members of the local Yadgalah Aboriginal Corporation to ensure our tours do not encroach on any significant sites and we operate in a culturally sensitive manner.

We encourage you to download and read the “Welcome to Country” Brochure to ensure you observe the appropriate protocols when visiting areas significant to Aboriginal people. This can be downloaded from the Indigenous Tourism web site.

During the course of the cruise we explain to our passengers about various aspects of the local Aboriginal history in the area, and the significance of the local Aboriginal people as the Traditional Owners of Shark Bay.

We do not share Aboriginal stories, as it is our understanding that it is only right for the ‘owners’ of those stories to chose when and how they would like to share them.

We support and encourage our guests to participate in tours offered by Aboriginal tourism operators in Shark Bay and encourage you to go out on tour with:

Aussie Off Road Tours; and
Wula Guda Nyinda - Aboriginal Eco Adventures

Please Note
As an example of Monkey Mia Yacht Charter's
responsible attitude to everything they do,
they supply sunscreen lotion and will loan
polarized sunglasses, weather jackets
or wind jackets to guests in the unlikely
event of an unexpected weather change.