Meet the site
San Remo Jetty is the better-known of the two pier dives in The Narrows and the one Ian Lewis's Shore Dives of Victoria singles out as the place to learn this stretch of water before attempting the bridge drift. The jetty serves San Remo's commercial fishing fleet and the fishermen's co-op, with a deep channel across the pier front and the bridge pylons visible 200 m to the north. Underwater it is a classic Victorian pier: a forest of timber pylons on a sand and shell bottom of 3–8 m, but scoured and fed by tidal streams stronger than anything at Rye or Flinders. That flow means the pylons carry a dense coat of filter feeders – orange and yellow sponges, colonial ascidians, hydroids and tubeworms – and the associated fauna is prolific: big-belly seahorses, decorator and spider crabs, hermit crabs, cowfish, pipefish, nudibranchs and, in winter, shoals of juvenile fish sheltering in the lee of the pylons. Rays, flathead and the occasional Port Jackson shark lie in the sand between rows, and schools of trevally and salmon patrol the channel edge. Because the slack is so brief, the dive is intense rather than leisurely: divers arrive to find water still sliding past the pylons, watch it stop, and have perhaps twenty minutes before it begins to move in the opposite direction. Local divers use that character deliberately, going to the outer pylons while it is still and letting the returning ebb walk them back to the beach. Visibility is generally better than at Newhaven across the channel and can reach 10 m on a winter neap. For a diver who understands tidal timing this is a rewarding macro and photography dive with a very short walk; for anyone who does not, it is a site to avoid, because the same channel carried divers well out towards the bar before the rules of the place were understood.
What you might see
Big-belly seahorses, decorator and spider crabs, nudibranchs, cowfish, pipefish, encrusting sponges, ascidians and hydroids, rays, flathead, Port Jackson sharks, trevally, Australian salmon, juvenile fish schools
Location
Commercial fishing jetty off Marine Parade, San Remo, on the mainland side of The Narrows about 200 m south of the Phillip Island bridge.
Facilities nearby
Marine Parade car park, public toilets and cafes/fish and chips at the co-op in San Remo; No air fills on Phillip Island; nearest fills on the Mornington Peninsula (Rye/Portsea) or in Melbourne's south-east
Before you make plans
Conditions, access and operator schedules can change. This is a location guide, not a dive plan. Ask a local operator about current conditions and suitability for your training and experience.
Sources & further reading
scubadoctor.com.auscubadoctor.com.auRecord updated 26 Sept 2026. Source claims are being reviewed.