Tasman Peninsula Coastal Wildlife

Tasman Island Cruises 3 hour eco-cruise travels along the spectacular coastline of Tasman National Park between Port Arthur and Eaglehawk Neck.

A major highlight of the voyage is the huge variety of wildlife – on land, sea and air. Few places on Earth have such a rich variety of marine wildlife and seabirds. The Continental Shelf runs close to Tasman Island and an upwelling of nutrients from the ocean's depths creates a smorgasbord for all the creatures in the comples food chain of the sea, from plankton to great white sharks.

Some of the sea and coastal wildlife of this area include:

Mammals

The mammals frequenting the coastline of the Tasman Peninsula include the Australian fur seal, the bottled-nosed and common dolphins, humpback whales, leopard seals, New Zealand fur seals, pilot whales, southern elephant seal and southern right whale. (Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife, 2003)

One of the mammals which you are most likely to see on the Tasman Island Cruises eco-cruise is the Australian Fur Seal which use the rocks the base of Tasman Island and various other cliff faces and rocky outcrops as a 'haul-out'. It is estimated that there are over 1000 seals frequenting this area at the one time.

Another mammal very common among the waters of the Tasman Peninsula is the dolphin, specifically the Common dolphin and Bottle-nosed dolphin.

These friendly creatures travel in pod sizes anywhere from 2 to 100s and one of their favourite pastimes is to swim around and on the bow wave of the Tasman Island Cruises boats.

It is common during the whale migrating seasons, May – July and September – November, to observe humpback or southern right whales. It is also possible that you will come across other less common whales such as the Pygmy right whale, Minke Whale, Blue Whale and the Killer whale otherwise known as the orca.

Birds

Some of the most common seabirds that are viewed on the Tasman Island Cruise eco-cruise are the Shy albatross, Short-tailed shearwater, common diving-petrel, Australasian gannet, black-faced cormorant, crested term, sooty oystercatcher and the White-faced heron.

The Tasman Peninsula coastline is also the home to a number of birds of prey such as the White-bellied sea-eagle, Wedge-tailed eagle and Peregrine falcon.