On the south coast of New South Wales, is the popular sea side town of Jervis Bay. It’s a little known fact that in Jervis Bay you can scuba dive with Australian fur seals! Seal diving in Jervis Bay is such an incredible experience. Put it high on your list because you can not miss out on this!

Jervis Bay is actually my home town, so instead of going through a dive operator we just jumped on Matt’s grand dad’s boat and went out ourselves. It was during the 2020 bushfires, so there was a thick layer of smoke sitting across the bay. We didn’t let that stop us though, as the visibility was still pretty good.

It took 30 mins from Huskisson wharf to reach the “drum and drumsticks”, just outside the bay itself. Because it’s outside the bay, you do need to make sure the weather is perfect, the swell is minimal and your boat is suitable for the open ocean.

Seal diving is so much fun – it’s not like normal scuba diving where you need to keep fairly still and hope the animal approaches. With seal diving you need to move about a lot and keep the seal entertained! So there we are flipping and somersaulting, absolutely surrounded by seals! The water is only about 15m deep and the temperature was 17 degrees celsius. With quite a bit of swell, you do need to be comfortable with your buoyance and diving skills.

Although we went out with family, there is Dive Jervis Bay, which heads out to the seals, as long as the conditions are right. The seals are there year around, but it does get quite chilly in winter… I’m talking dry suit cold! While you’re there you need to check out some of the world’s whitest sands and do some whale watching!