Australia

Inever dived

The Mornington Peninsula - where I have now dived over 1,000 times - is one of Victoria’s mostpopular tourist destinations, serviced by no less than five scuba centres. Many of the piers dotted along its picturesque coast offer easy access to the relatively calm waters of Melbourne’s 1,930 square kilometre Port Phillip Bay.

These piers offer exciting underwater playgrounds for divers and underwater photographers of all levels. Current is rarely an issue, and a reliable system of webcams - coupled with weather apps to assess wind speed, direction and swell for each site - assists with dive planning. Year round, and at any time day or night, divers park their cars and within minutes are submerged in water 3m-10m deep, straight off the shore or via giant stride from pier landings. Water temperatures range from 10°C in winter (making drysuit diving, gloves, hoods and thermals a popular choice), to 22°C in summer.

Undeterred, divers avail themselves of the relative safety and simple navigation of pier diving, as well as easy access to marine life diversity that rivals the Great Barrier Reef. Because of their close proximity, it’s not uncommon for divers to explore two or three piers across a day - double and triple dives at one pier are also popular (Care must be taken, particularly in summer when fishing hooks, boat and jet ski traffic abound in the same shallow waters).

The blue-ringed octopus is roughly 20cm in length, but it is one of the most venomous animals in the ocean. Its bite causes paralysis in the muscles and can easily kill an adult human!

Attached to a bustling marina, the expansive T-shaped Blairgowrie Pier has a dedicated divers pontoon and ladder and is diveable in most conditions. The substrate is comprised of sand, weed and shell, appealing to muck divers searching for nudibranchs, gobies, dragonets, velvetfish, stargazers

Photographs by PT Hirschfield, Ruth Betteridge & Gary Bell

and other fish life. Hundreds of pylons supporting wooden and concrete seawalls are encrusted with kelp, sponges and ascidians, harbouring seahorses, decorator crabs and sea stars. Baby seahorses and pipefish can often be found swimming just beneath the surface. Those with sharp eyes may detect cryptic tasseled anglerfish along the seawalls. Concrete matting covered by growth and running the length of the pier from the pontoon provides seasonal sanctuary for giant cuttlefish, stingarees and Port Jackson sharks. Fiddler rays and enormous smooth rays cruise between the fishing end of the pier and the shallows.

The 360-metre L-shaped Rye Pier is renowned for spider crab aggregations, and its reputation as ‘The Octopuses’ Garden’ often proves well deserved, with pale, maori, southern keeled, sand and blue ringed octopuses frequently present. Entry is from the shore across several sand banks (preferably on high tide) or via a long pier walk to a wide divers platform; stairs go down into the water, followed by direct descent into 3-4m depth. The absence of sea walls attached to this pier facilitates ample light on a sunny day.

Seahorses, goatfish, globefish and more are frequently seen as you swim the length of the pier - hunting cormorants sometimes duck and weave between divers. If you’re willing to venture beyond the pier, count three pylons right from the elbow, then follow star pickets out to an unkempt pile of metal, bricks, concrete and a shopping trolley guarded by a faded lion statue, known as ‘Elsa’s Reef’. Follow more pickets from this trolley to more trolleys and toilets. Keep your eyes peeled the whole way for occys resting inside bricks, toilets and tubes, engaged in mating behaviours, or going for their morning, afternoon or evening strolls.

While you might meet some friendly stingrays, those who encounter a wobbegong or who cross paths with a little penguin or some of Port Phillip Bay’s resident dolphin population consider themselves to be especially lucky!

Note: It’s anticipated that Rye Pier will undergo reconstruction from early-mid 2022 which will exclude divers from diving until construction is complete.

On the opposite side of the peninsula, Flinders Pier offers easy access via shore (the vis tends to clear as you swim) or an easy walk down a concrete pier to the divers platform (which can only be used to exit on high tide). Exposed to Westernport Bay, conditions at Flinders are considerably less predictable and more tide and swell dependent than piers on the Port Phillip side. Aim for flooding tide with swell under a metre for the best chance of minimal surge and decent vis. Northerly winds (typically avoided at the other piers) are viable here as you search for Victoria’s iconic marine emblem, the weedy seadragon. These gentle creatures are almost guaranteed to be floating slowly over thick carpets of weeds, around the base of pylons, and directly beneath the fishing end of the pier.

Marine life here can include Maori octopuses, large smooth rays, Shaws and ornate cowfish, grass whiting and rainbow cale. Occasional draughtboard and Port Jackson sharks and giant cuttlefish also make an appearance.

Spider crabs have a thick shell-type skin with small spines and tubercles. These spiny tubercles also cover the carapace, which in turn blends with the ocean floor, highlighting their ability to camouflage.

Note - 180 metres of wooden pylons running parallel to the concrete pier are slated to be removed in the near future; this may impact diver access when underway.

Portsea Pier, near the western tip of the peninsula, is the meeting site for charter boat dives into Port Phillip Bay. While the site is quite surgy due to dredging, diving it on ebb tide is less challenging (particularly for shore exits!). Small rocks covering the substrate are home to sea slugs and related molluscs. Weedy seadragons are common here, and lucky divers might spot a goblinfish. There’s often a large school of globefish near the junction of the L-shaped pier, and simple structures towards the fishing end are worth investigating.

Sorrento Pier can only be dived at night, once the Sorrento to Queenscliff ferry has finished for the day. This site is subject to strong currents, so is suited to experienced divers. On the right night, this pier and the sandy shallows can yield a cornucopia of critters.

While the favourite of some divers, Mornington is considered by others to be more trouble than it’s worth due to boat hazards and often quite silty vis. Conditions typically range from average to diabolical when the wind pounds through, and sections that look like ancient underwater ruins are testament to some of the more-destructive impacts of raw nature across the life of the pier. Entry is either down a short ladder onto a slippery concrete ledge, or a giant stride directly from the carpark platform.

While not considered a premium dive site by most divers, Mornington offers greater depth (around 10m). It’s not uncommon to find fiddler rays that have found themselves tethered to the substrate by line and hooks, so taking a line cutter is a wise choice.

Shallow shore dives without tide restrictions allow for dives as long as your air lasts or until you get cold (whichever comes first). Whether you spend a day, weekend, week or lifetime diving Mornington Peninsula’s piers, you can almost always look forward to easy diving with a high chance of epic critters. What more could you possibly want? n