Port Stephens right next to Shoal Bay is home to about eighty dolphins and attracts numerous tourists eager for a sighting.

Spend some time with our Dolphins

The blue water off Port Stephens, just offshore, hides a current of water moving south at a few kilometres an hour. This southerly current brings warmer water from the tropical north. Twice a day, on the flood tide, some of this warm water is drawn into the port. High tide is a wonderful, renewing event. Clear, clean, salty water moves over the sand banks. Oyster racks are submerged. Shallow rocky creeks fill with water and become navigable.

Water need only be waist-deep to find the bottlenose dolphin fishing. Air breathing, warm-blooded, intelligent and friendly, this mammal is one of the best-loved creatures of the sea. Port Stephens has about eighty resident bottlenose dolphins. Any journey across the water usually involves a close encounter, as dolphins love to ride a boat¡¯s bow-wave. They dive, weave, kick and splash. This gives people a good chance to get a close look at them.

We treasure our dolphins. Charter boats run regular dolphin-watching cruises. Port Stephens dolphins are not fed or induced in any way to come to the boats. They do it out of curiosity. If they are not in the mood, they just swim away. When contact is made with the dolphins, there is always excitement. People rush to the sides and bow of the boat. The air is electric with wonder and anticipation. Most people are happy to have this small contact with a wild creature. Some want more and climb into the boom nets to be in the water with them. Some are able to touch the dolphins; others are splashed by the spray of their play.

There is a place on the southern shore of Yacaaba called The Boulders. Just offshore is a big hole filled with millions of round river stones.
Every day dolphins gather here at the Dolphin Hole to push themselves into the pebbles and stones on the bottom. This removes the sea-lice and other parasites on their bodies. It is a sort of community bathroom ¨C all part of life for the Port Stephens dolphins.