Blairgowrie Pier Snorkel
LOCATION Blairgowrie Pier, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
DEPTH 1-7 Meters
WATER TEMP 17-22 Degrees
DIFFICULTY Medium
Easy entry but there are many beams and pylons to negotiate
FEATURE
Google Map data © 2024 Imagery © Airbus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies
Blairgowrie Pier Snorkel
LOCATION Blairgowrie Pier, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
DEPTH 1-7 Meters
WATER TEMP 17-22 Degrees
DIFFICULTY Medium
Easy entry but there are many beams and pylons to negotiate
FEATURE
Google Map data © 2024 Imagery © Airbus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies
Blairgowrie Pier Snorkel
Don’t let busy Blairgowrie Pier trick you. This marina is home to a fantastic underwater world that features colourful sponge gardens and a huge variety of sea life from nudibranchs and pipefish to seahorses and a host of juvenile fish species. Better known as a dive spot, adventurous snorkellers can also have an amazing time here.
What Can I See?
Nudibranchs, crabs, seahorses, huge array of colourful sponges. This is a spectacular snorkel (and even better dive). The colourful underwater gardens are amazing and are home to all sorts of critters.
From May to June on the full moon you can also see the mass spider crab gathering as they congregate to breed.
- Spider Crabs
- Nudibranchs
- Seahorses
- Crabs
- Colourful Sponges
- Stingrays
- Octopus
- Cuttlefish
- Occassional Seal or Penguin has been spotted
Getting There
Blairgowrie is 90 minutes from the centre of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula between Rye and Sorento.
Where & How do you get in?
There is a purpose built scuba/snorkel entry point about 150m along the jetty on your right. There is a wide set of steps that make it easy to access and exit the water.
You can also enter and exit the water from the small beach next to the pier.
Best Season
No best season here, but even in summer the water temp is a cool 19-20 degrees so dress warm if you go for a snorkel outside of these times.
To see the spider crab aggregation, you’ll need to dress warm and hit the water from on the full moon in May or June.
Potential Hazards
- Cold Water
- Fishing Nearby
- Boat Traffic
- Currents
- Watch that you dont bang your head on the pier cross beams
Recommended Gear
- Wesuit
- Torch
How Busy / Crowds
This is a very busy, working marina so there are always people and boats coming and going.
This is a very popular dive spot so there will often be people below you. The pier is 250m long so there is plenty of room for snorkellers, we were easily outnumbered by divers.
Parking
There are two parking areas. the lower park can fill quickly especially on weekends and holidays when people are around taking out boats.
We parked up top and took the wooden stairs down to the pier. It is maybe a 50-60mm walk from here. This carpark is right on the main Point Nepean Road just after the turn off to the lower carpark.
The information for each snorkel spot is provided by people who have snorkelled there. However, snorkelling conditions change daily. Please be aware that wind, swell, tides and cloud cover can all affect visibility and your experience in the water.
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Tours
The Scuba Doctor offers guided diving tours of the Blairgowrie Pier. Snorkelling tour options for the Mornington Peninsula are below.
Best Conditions
This is quite a sheltered spot as the breakwater and sea wall provide a lot of protection from waves and swell. We ventured to the outside of the breakwater by going around the short righthand wall and the swell was noticeably greater – but it was calm in the mariner.
Certainly worth going at the change of tide to avoid currents. There are a lot of pylons and low beams that you want to avoid bumping into. You really need to stay aware of what is above you. For this reason also avoid very high tides or you will be duck diving regularly to get under the crossbeams as you snorkel along the marina wall.
Although sheltered, if there is a breeze, south/south easterlies are best.
Windy Map Instructions – Click on the wind icon in the top right to see other conditions such as swell, temperature, rain. To clear the four day forecast click and close the wind icon.
Facilities at Blairgowrie Pier
Toilets
Parking
Food & Drinks
Boat Ramp
About the Snorkel
This was an interesting snorkel. The life on the pylons and beams below the pier was stunning How you approach it will depend on your snorkelling experience.
After entering from the platform, you have two options. Beginners best keep the wave wall on their left and drift their way back into the shore. This is still a fantastic snorkel with lots of colour, baby fish, sea stars, nudibranchs and pipe fish as you get into shallower water.
If you are more experienced, you can make your way to the breakwater at the back of the marina. There are pylons and low beams everywhere this way, it is a real maze and quite enclosed. Particularly stay aware of structures above you.
The breakwater extends for 450m and the sponge gardens are fantastic. Because of the position of the sun, the visibility was average for us back here, so we spent most of our time along the wave wall.
Nat also couldn’t get the smell/taste of fuel out of the mouth. I didn’t notice it, but she felt a bit queasy by the end of our 90 min snorkel. This is not an obviously polluted area, but it is a busy marina where literally 100s of boats moor and refuel.
All that said, we had a great time here. The sponges were amazing. Yellow, white, orange and pink and all kind of shapes, the sort of stuff you can imagine in a coral garden.
We saw lots of bright blue and yellow Verco nudibranchs, a seahorse, eleven arm sea stars, porcupine fish and there were little blennies poking out of any hole in a pylon.
It was quite a fish nursery with juvenile yellow fin whiting, schools of tiny baby squid, leatherjackets and moonlighters. There were crabs lurking on the cross beams and I think we had a fleeting glimpse of an octopus.
You could spend ages in one section between the pylons and see a huge variety of marine life. We enjoyed our snorkel here (apart from Nat’s mild nausea) but for an easier and equally rewarding snorkel try Rye Pier.
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