The Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park is rich in marine life and is well known for its huge variety of marine animals such as whales, seals, dolphins, turtles and many types of fishes.
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It's this marine life that makes the area a very popular destination with tourists and locals to head out on the water and enjoy the experience of seeing various marine animals in the wild.
Below is some information on the marine life that you may encounter on your visit to Port Stephens:
Dolphins
There are two types of dolphins that are commonly seen in the waters of the marine park - the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin and the Common Dolphin.
Around 100 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins are sighted inside the eastern Port on a regular basis, with mostly separate communities occurring east and west of the Soldiers Point region.
Those in the eastern side of the Port Stephens region support a large tourism industry based around dolphin watching cruises.
Dolphins have been found to utilise all habitats from shallow sand flats and seagrass beds to deep channels, and from the rivers that flow into the Port to the open coastal beaches outside the headlands.
Dolphins in Port Stephens breed in the summer months of December through March.
Seals
Over the past couple of years, the sighting of seals in the marine park appears to be on the increase.
There are two types of fur seals found in New South Wales waters, the Australian fur seal and the New Zealand fur seal which are members of the family Otariidae (Fur seals and sea lions).
It is very difficult to tell the difference between the Australian fur seal and the New Zealand fur seal.
Over the past couple of winters, seals have been regularly seen basking on the rocks on the western side of Cabbage Tree Island. It is believed that these seals were most likely New Zealand fur seals which are the largest of all the fur seals, weighing around 200-300kg.
The females are smaller than the males and mature males carry a dark mane of coarse hair.
Fishers have also reported seeing fur seals all the way out to the continental shelf off Port Stephens and around locations such as Broughton Island and Seal Rocks.
Fish
Fish species within the marine park are very diverse with a dominance of temperate water species and an influx of tropical species normally occurring over the warmer months.
Each year, approximately from December until May, water temperatures in the region are influenced by the East Australian Current which transports a variety of juvenile and adult tropical species into the region.
Water temperature during this period is normally 21-24 degrees allowing tropical vagrants to settle and establish in areas outside their general range.
Over 800 fish species have been recorded in the marine park to date.
The Port Stephens estuary is a very important area for fish as a large variety of weird and unusual fish can be found such as anglerfish, indianfish, boxfish and seahorses.
Nelson Bay is considered to be a seahorse 'hotspot' with large numbers of seahorses found at various locations around the Fly Point-Dutchies Beach area.
Turtles
Not many people are aware to the fact that Port Stephens has a large population of resident marine turtles.
Three species of turtles are regularly encountered in the waters of the marine park: the green turtle, the loggerhead turtle and the hawksbill turtle.
The most common species is the green turtle and can be found feeding on seagrasses throughout the Port; snorkelling around Fly Point provides a good chance of encountering one.
The loggerhead is larger which a much bigger head and feeds on creatures such as jellyfish.
Unfortunately plastic bags look like jellyfish and loggerheads often die from ingesting plastic bags washed into our waterways so it's important that any plastic bags are disposed of correctly.
Care needs to be taken when driving boats around the Port to watch out for the turtles as a boat strike can cause serious injury to a turtle and may result in death.
Dr David Harasti is a senior marine scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries Fisheries, based at Taylors Beach.
Read more in the Beneath the Surface series
To showcase the Port's incredible underwater world the Examiner has collaborated with regular Nelson Bay divers and photographers on a series that explores life Beneath the Surface.