Wildlife Beaches

Reliable encounters with turtles, seals, birds or rays.

Reliability is the criterion, not possibility — every beach has wildlife somewhere near it. What qualifies is a species that is regularly present and can be seen without unusual luck: nesting turtles at Ras Al Jinz and Boa Vista, penguins at Boulders, marine iguanas at Tortuga Bay, manta rays and whale sharks off Tofo, fur seal pups at Wharariki. Almost every beach on this list is managed for that reason, and the rules are the price of the encounter: minimum distances, no flash, no feeding, guided access, closed nesting sections and capped numbers. They are enforced at most of these sites and should be treated as instructions. Several of the species here are in decline, and the register says so in the portraits rather than presenting a guaranteed sighting.