Seal Colony, Cape Bridgewater

Meet the site

Cape Bridgewater is the great basalt and limestone headland west of Portland, and on its eastern side, below cliffs that reach 130 m, lives one of the few mainland colonies of Australian fur seals in Australia – several hundred animals, with long-nosed fur seals among them, hauled out on ledges and caves at the water's edge. The Scuba Doctor lists a boat dive site directly below the colony in 5–10 m, and the description is of playful, curious seals speeding past in what it calls an exciting and thrilling experience, over a reef of ledges, swim-throughs and kelp forests with abalone and crayfish in the cracks. The cliff continues underwater as a basalt wall and boulder slope with the heavy sponge and ascidian growth of the cold Bonney Upwelling water, and the fish are the western reef community – wrasse, sweep, magpie perch, morwong, leatherjackets – with schools of salmon and the occasional kingfish in summer. Horseshoe Reef and the SS Barwon wreck lie 1.5 km to the north in the calmer water near Fisherman Cove.

It is the most accessible seal dive in western Victoria for anyone with a boat: a ten-minute run from the beach ramp at Cape Bridgewater township on a calm day, Open Water depth, and seals guaranteed. Two cautions frame it. The Victorian wildlife regulations require boats to stay 50 m and swimmers 30 m from seals unless the animals approach, and the hauled-out animals should never be disturbed. And this is white shark country: the colony is a known feeding area, and Visit Portland's advice to avoid October to January, the pupping season, is sensible; most local divers go in autumn. No dive charter operates here – the Seals by Sea tour boats view the colony from the surface – so the dive is done from private boats or by arrangement, with Portland SCUBA the source of air and local advice. For those without a boat, the Seal Walk along the clifftop gives a view of the colony, and the Petrified Forest and Blowholes on the western side of the cape are worth the visit in themselves, though the western side lies within Discovery Bay Marine National Park and is a very different, fully exposed proposition.

What you might see

Australian fur seals and long-nosed fur seals (mainland colony), southern rock lobster, black-lip abalone, blue-throat wrasse, sea sweep, magpie perch, banded morwong, leatherjackets, Australian salmon, kelp forest, sponges and ascidians on basalt, great white sharks (seasonal), blue whales offshore in summer

Location

Reef with ledges, swim-throughs and kelp below the Australian fur seal colony on the eastern side of Cape Bridgewater, 2.5 km south of the township and 21 km south-west of Portland, in 5–10 m.

Facilities nearby

Cape Bridgewater beach boat ramp, cafe and toilets at the township, Seal Walk and Blowholes car parks; Portland SCUBA (21 km) for air.