Visitors to Ningaloo Marine Park can swim with majestic humpback whales for a third year running, with the new trial season commencing off the Coral Coast. The Minister for Environment has also approved the continuation of the in-water interaction trials for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The move will attract thousands of tourists to visit the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Coast to interact with the massive marine mammals as they make their way north to their Kimberley calving grounds.

Western swamp tortoises have been released into the wild today with special data loggers attached that will help guide recovery efforts for the critically endangered species. The 12 Perth Zoo-bred tortoises were released into Ellen Brook Nature Reserve in Perth's north-eastern suburbs. Data loggers attached to the tortoises will record information about how long they spend in water, the depth of the water they forage in, and the summer-time conditions they experience when they aestivate under leaf litter and in holes during summer. After 12 months, the tortoises will be returned to Perth Zoo. The trial will enable researchers to compare tortoises of similar age, genetics and history to tortoises being released at Meerup in the South-West, and will help guide decisions about possible future…