Jones Bay, Cape Nelson

Meet the site

Jones Bay is the small bay on the western flank of Cape Nelson, about 10 km south-west of Portland, facing west toward Cape Bridgewater across the open water of Bridgewater Bay. The Scuba Doctor lists it as a boat dive in 2–15 m for Open Water divers and beyond and states plainly that its primary appeal is the opportunity to catch abalone and crayfish; it is a local hunting ground rather than a scenic destination, and there is little published about its topography beyond that. What can be said with confidence follows from its position: the reef is the same basalt that forms the whole of Cape Nelson, weathered into ledges, gutters and boulder fields under kelp and mixed algae, with the encrusting sponge and ascidian growth of the cold Portland water on the shaded faces and the fish community of the cape – blue-throat wrasse, magpie perch, sea sweep, herring cale, banded morwong, leatherjackets – over it. Black-lip abalone graze the algal reef and southern rock lobster fill the crevices, which is why the bay is fished. Seals from the Cape Bridgewater colony 8 km to the west pass through and blue whales feed in the upwelling offshore in summer.

Its value to a visiting diver is as the western-side alternative when an easterly or north-easterly wind puts the Portland-side sites and Flat Rock out; then Jones Bay and the reefs toward Murrells Reef to the north are in the lee and can be dived comfortably in a small swell. The run from Portland Harbour rounds the cape and is long and exposed, and the alternative launch at Cape Bridgewater is shorter but conditions-dependent. No dive charter operates from Portland; the bay is dived by private boats and by arrangement with fishing charters, with Portland SCUBA the source of air and local advice. Victorian bag limits, size limits and the abalone and rock lobster seasons apply.

What you might see

Black-lip abalone, southern rock lobster, blue-throat wrasse, magpie perch, sea sweep, herring cale, banded morwong, leatherjackets, kelp, sponges and ascidians, Australian fur seals, blue whales offshore in summer

Location

Reef in Jones Bay on the western side of Cape Nelson, about 10 km south-west of Portland, in 2–15 m, sheltered from easterly weather.

Facilities nearby

Portland Harbour ramps or Cape Bridgewater ramp; Portland SCUBA for air; no facilities at the bay.