MELBOURNE AND PORT PHILLIP BAY SNORKELLING AND WILDLIFE • OUR BAY AND ITS ECOSYSTEMS
I spend a lot of time around Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay snorkelling and looking at wildlife. Though I also regularly snorkel at Ricketts Point (Beaumaris), Mushroom Reef (Flinders), Blairgowrie and Portsea Piers. There is so much to discover just beneath the surface here. I’ve written quite a few articles so I decided to set up this page to contain all of them.
Only one chance to swim this weekend and we popped down to snorkel from the sea scout jetty at Beaumaris. This area is a bit covered in filamentous algae at the moment, so it isn’t easy to find things. Nevertheless, the moment we entered the water we spotted a Blue-lined Headshield Slug, with its orange headlights, go-faster stripes and racing foils. This is a species we see only occasionally, in comparison to the more abundant …
SNORKELLING TRIP REPORTS • UPDATES FROM HOME AND AWAY
SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENT • PORT PHILLIP BAY
EXPORE FURTHER • WILDLIFE IN THE BALANCE
A TRIP TO THE
CORAL TRIANGLE
WITH SIMON MUSTOE
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BY
SIMON MUSTOE
Expert Ecologist, Consultant & Author
“Wildlife has a huge and immeasurable impact on the stability, health and functioning of ecosystems. For this reason, humanity cannot survive without wildlife. Wild animals turn dust into soil, carbon into food and the weather into a fair climate for living. These are the stories untold – the reason why conservation is essential for our survival.” ~ SIMON
One of the most extraordinary wildlife experiences of my life – near the city of Melbourne
I had the most extraordinary encounter the other day only 10m from shore. I was inside a bait ball. Seabirds, salmon and ocean megafauna were feeding all around me. I’ll probably never experience this again in my life. It got me thinking. Can we talk to animals through body language? It was in Melbourne over Easter. We decided to snorkel at Ricketts Point Marine Park, just a few kilometres from the city centre. A huge stingray instigated a close-encounter and didn’t seem in the slightest bit concerned by our presence. Before it started to feed, this 3m-long stingray swam slowly up to me and rested its head on my feet. It came around and did it again later. Can we talk to animals? It seems as though there was a level of understanding between us … read more
