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Divers Den

BURRANAN DOLPHINS

Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay has its own small but unique population of bottlenose dolphins, called Burrunan dolphins.

There are two broad categories of whales, Cetaceans, toothed-whales, Odontocetes, such as bottlenose dolphins, and baleen whales, Mysticeti, such as humpback whales. All are air-breathing marine mammals.

Toothed-whales includes over 70 species such as porpoises, killer whales (0rca), sperm whales and the Burrunan dolphin.

Burrunan dolphins were first identified as a separate species from the other two species of bottlenose dolphin in 2011 by researchers at Monash University. There are only about 150 individuals, 100 of which are found in Port Phillip Bay and 50 in Gippsland.

Dolphins are very social animals and live in groups called pods which can vary from a small number of individuals up to thousands in offshore pods. Burrunan dolphins usually swim in small pods of up to 30 individuals.

They communicate and hunt using clicking sounds and echo-location, and can swim at speeds up to 35 km per hour, (20 mph).

After mating, females give birth to their calves a year later and then suckle their young for around 18 months. Calves stay with their mothers for about four years and can live for over 40 years.

In 2004, Ticonderoga Bay Sanctuary Zone, in the southern end of Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay, was established as a refuge and protection zone for the Bay’s Burrunan dolphins.

Ticonderoga Bay got its name from the Ticonderoga, a vessel on its way to Melbourne from Liverpool in England in 1852 during the Victorian gold rush.

Vessels were often overcrowded, aggravating the incidence of disease. The fever-ridden Ticonderoga carrying over 800 people was placed in quarantine just inside Point Nepean and about 70 people died and were buried ashore on Point Nepean, in what was to become a quarantine station for all new arrivals.

The area is protected from prevailing southerly winds and it is here an interaction with the Bay’s resident population of Burrunan dolphins is most likely.

Although, as a general rule, the Bay’s dolphins are quite shy of scuba divers, they can be encountered while enjoying a gentle ebb tide drift dive between Police and Observatory Points.

A typical drift dive commences on the Police Point sponge gardens in around eight metres (25’) and takes divers over large underwater sand dunes in about 18 metres (60’) to the old quarantine jetty on Observatory Point in about 30 minutes, a distance of approximately two kilometres (1 mi).

It is over the sand dunes where a scuba divers may encounter these friendly captivating dolphins, so be aware and keep your eyes open!

Whilst a scuba encounter is rare, an interaction with the Bay’s unique dolphins with one of the licensed dolphin swim tour operators is all but guaranteed.

SPECIES DETAILS
Scientific name:                 
Tursiops australis
Habitat:                             
Port Phillip Bay & Gippsland Lakes (VIC)
Population:                         
Approximately 120
Conservation status:       
Critically Endangered (Protected in Australia)
Australian distribution:     
Victoria

Copyright © 2024 Steve Sinclair

OTHER GREAT AUSTRALIAN ANIMAL DIVES
Ningaloo Whale Sharks, Exmouth Humpback Whales, Great White Sharks, Giant Cuttlefish, Barunguba Montague Island Seals, Tollgate Islands Shark Gutter, Manta Bommie, Dwarf Minke Whales, Cod Hole, North Horn Shark Feed and Raine Island Turtles.

2026 GREAT AUSTRALIAN DIVE CHALLENGE
Dive Registration
To register this dive for validation, go to: www.50greatdives.com.
NOTE: Entrants should do this dive with one of the following preferred dive services.

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