Shoal Bay is a shallow bay lying adjacent to, and north of, the city of Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

 in the Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

 of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Encompassing Hope Inlet at its eastern end, it is characterised by extensive areas of intertidal mudflat

Mudflat

Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of...

s and mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

s and is an important site for wader

Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...

s, or shorebirds.

Description

The bay comprises the lower reaches of the Howard River and several small tidal creeks that drain into Hope Inlet. Much of the bay is exposed at low tide, with about 100 km² of tidal mud and sand flats. Unlike most other bays in the Northern Territory, it is not associated with large rivers, nor freshwater coastal floodplain

Floodplain

A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...

s. It does include some swamps and remnants of monsoon

Monsoon

Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...

al vine forest on the margins. Because of its proximity to Darwin it is threatened by urbanisation and land development. It is also affected by invasive species

Invasive species in Australia

Invasive species are a serious threat to the native biodiversity of Australia and are an ongoing cost to Australian agriculture.Management and the prevention of the introduction of new invasive species are key environmental and agricultural policy issues for the Australian federal and state...

, frequent fires and largely uncontrolled recreational use of the area.

Plants

Some 61 plant species endemic to the Northern Territory are found around the bay. Of these, three, Cycas armstrongii

Cycas armstrongii

Cycas armstrongii is a species of cycad in the genus Cycas, native to Australia, in the northwest of Northern Territory from the Finniss River in the west to the Arnhem Highway to the east....

, Ptychosperma macarthurii and Utricularia dunstaniae

Utricularia dunstaniae

Utricularia dunstaniae is an annual terrestrial carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia . Its distribution ranges from northern Western Australia to the Northern Territory....

, are considered threatened. Two, Utricularia holtzei

Utricularia holtzei

Utricularia holtzei is an annual affixed aquatic carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia . It is endemic to the Northern Territory....

and Typhonium praetermissum, are only known from the Darwin Coastal bioregion.

Birds

Some 96 km² of the bay has been identified by BirdLife International

BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 as a Important Bird Area

Important Bird Area

An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...

 (IBA) because it supports, with its low-tide feeding habitat and high-tide roosting sites, over 1% of the world population of Great Knot

Great Knot

The Great Knot, Calidris tenuirostris, is a small wader. It is the largest of the calidrid species.Their breeding habitat is tundra in northeast Siberia. They nest on the ground laying about four eggs in a ground scrape. They are strongly migratory wintering on coasts in southern Asia through to...

s. Other birds recorded from the bay in significant numbers include Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

The Black-tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa, is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the Limosa genus, the godwits...

s, Greater Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

The Greater Sand Plover, Charadrius leschenaultii, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as "Greater sandplover", but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Greater sand plover"....

s, Terek Sandpiper

Terek Sandpiper

The Terek Sandpiper is a small migratory Palearctic wader species, the only member of the genus Xenus.- Description and systematics :...

s and Beach Stone-curlew

Beach Stone-curlew

The Beach Stone-curlew, Esacus giganteus also known as Beach Thick-knee is a large, ground-dwelling bird that occurs in Australasia, the islands of South-east Asia...

s. Chestnut Rail

Chestnut Rail

The Chestnut Rail is a species of bird in the Rallidae family. The Chestnut Rail is monotypical of its genus.It is found in Australia and Indonesia.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical mangrove forests....

s inhabit the mangroves.

Other animals

Apart from birds, threatened animals recorded from the bay and its surrounds include Northern Quoll

Northern Quoll

The Northern Quoll , also known as the Northern Native Cat, the Satanellus, the North Australian Native Cat or the Njanmak , is a carnivorous marsupial mammal, native to Australia.- Taxonomy :The Northern Quoll is a member of the family Dasyuridae, and is often stated to be the most distinctive...

s, Mertens' Water

Mertens' Water Monitor

Mertens’ Water Monitor , often misspelled Merten’s Water Monitor, is a member of the monitor lizard family found in northern Australia, and is a wide-ranging, active foraging, opportunistic predator of aquatic and riparian habitats. It is named after German herpetologist Robert...

 and Argus Monitor

Argus monitor

The Argus monitor is a monitor lizard found in northern regions of Australia and southern New Guinea. It is also commonly known as the Yellow-spotted Monitor....

s, Flatback and Olive Ridley Turtles, Dwarf

Dwarf sawfish

The dwarf sawfish or Queensland sawfish, Pristis clavata, is a sawfish of the family Pristidae, found in tropical Australia. With a maximum length of approximately , this critically endangered species is by far the smallest species in its family....

 and Longcomb Sawfish

Longcomb sawfish

The longcomb sawfish, Pristis zijsron, is a sawfish of the family Pristidae, found in tropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific oceans, from the Red Sea and east Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to southern China, and south to New South Wales, Australia, between latitudes 21° N and 37° S. This...

, and Dodd's Azure Butterflies. Feral pigs and Water Buffalo

Water Buffalo

The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, northern Africa, and elsewhere....

es are present. There is an ongoing program to monitor and remove Saltwater Crocodile

Saltwater Crocodile

The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...

s from the bay.