Is Shark Bay Safe?

Yes, for anyone who can walk steadily over wet rock. The young lemon sharks at Shark Bay are 50 to 90 cm long and swim round people’s legs; the real hazards are the slippery basalt shore, sea urchins between the rocks and the waves on a windy day. Wear water shoes, stand still, never touch or feed a shark, and hold small children’s hands. The four-hour Shark Bay tour with Sal Experiences puts a guide beside you and costs from £38 a person (checked October 2026).

The sharks

The sharks in the bay are newborn and young lemon sharks. The researchers who tag them measured 81 between 2022 and 2025: 50 to 92 cm long, nine in ten under 80 cm. They are curious, they circle still legs, and visitors on the shark trips describe them brushing past their shins. They are still wild animals with teeth. Lemon sharks are listed as Vulnerable, and the Sal conservation group Projeto Biodiversidade, which studies this bay, asks every visitor never to touch or feed them, even if someone suggests it, and to choose a tour that does not feed them.

So the rules are simple:

• Stand still, or move slowly. The sharks come to still legs.
• Keep your hands out of the water. No touching, no grabbing for a photo.
• No food in the water.
• Follow the guide: they know where the footing is good and where the sharks gather.

The rocks and the sea urchins

This is the part that hurts people. The shore at Shark Bay is dark volcanic rock, slippery when wet, and sea urchins sit in the cracks under the water. Projeto Biodiversidade calls renting water shoes there essential. Each Shark Bay tour deals with them in its own way:

Water shoe terms and the €2 rental from each listing, checked October 2026.

Plastic clogs, reef shoes or old trainers you do not mind soaking all work. Flip-flops come off on the rocks. Keep them on in the water.

Older visitors manage it with care: one couple in their late seventies on the shark trip brought hiking poles, and the guide gave an arm over the rocks. Sal Experiences lists its Shark Bay tours as unsuitable for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility. If you cannot get into the water, you can still watch the sharks from the edge.

The waves

On calm days the water at the bay is flat and clear and the sharks are easy to see. When the wind is up, small waves break over the rocks, it is harder to keep your footing, and the sharks are harder to make out. Reviews of the tours mention days after a storm when the sharks were hard to see. On the tours you wade and stand; it is not a swim.

Children

Children love it, and the sharks are smaller than many of them. Of the 214 written reviews in the newest 350 of the Shark Bay tour (17 August to 31 October 2026), 30 mention children or family. What makes it work:

• Water shoes that fit: bring a pair in the child’s size from home.
• A hand held the whole time on the rocks.
• Shallow water only, where the child can stand easily.
• Child seats in the car: Sal Experiences provides them free on request.

For a toddler, a carry and a look from the edge may be enough.

Pick your trip

Prices, ratings and review counts from the listings, GetYourGuide checked October 2026. Operators price by date and season, so treat the figures as the shape of the market, not a quote.

Good to know

• Shark Bay is not a reserve and has no official ticket. Local guides at the bay rent water shoes and walk visitors in.
• A guide, from a tour or at the bay, knows where the footing is good.
• Drink nothing alcoholic before: Sal Experiences turns away anyone who has been drinking.
• For the biology and the research figures, see lemon sharks in Cape Verde.