The Peninsula has several seaside villages
with sandy beaches on Port Phillip.
These beaches have been popular for well over a century. Some of them still have the iconic colorful
bathing boxes, which were first built in the 1880’s.
The calm and protected waters in the bay
are inviting to families, whereas the risky and exposed waters on the other
side of the peninsula appeal to surfers.
In 1967, the Prime Minister disappeared while swimming on this
side. The walks in the Mornington
Peninsula National Park provide beautiful viewpoints of the shoreline.
I decided to take advantage of my recent
open water diving certification, so I went diving around the Portsea Pier (Port
Phillip side) with the hopes of spotting weedy sea dragons. This creature was voted as the marine emblem
of Victoria in 2002. It is endemic to
the coastal waters in the southern half of Australia with a strong concentration
in Victoria. It has leaf-shaped
appendages to camouflage itself among the seaweed and kelp. (The leafy sea dragon has even more of these
appendages.) The weedy sea dragon is related
to sea horses and pipefish, but it doesn’t have the ability to anchor itself
with its tail. Instead, it tends to
drift with the current. It was easy to
check them out closely when I drifted alongside with the surge. I rented an underwater camera for this dive, but
frustratingly the battery ran out during the trip. (I’m disappointed the dive shop did not offer
a partial refund.) While no shots of
the puffer fish also spotted, I did get a couple of decent shots of some weedy
sea dragons.
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