beneath bremer bay
Known as a whale hotspot and gateway to the Bremer Canyon, Bremer Bay is a small coastal community in the southwestern region of the Great Southern Reef. The marine environment within these pristine waters is highly unique thanks to the Leeuwin current keeping temperatures warmer than most waters at this latitude and varying only slightly from 17 to 21 degrees all year round allowing flora and fauna to live and thrive.
Diving for dragons
The dive and snorkel sites in this area are teeming with plentiful fish, colourful sponges, Gorgonian coral fans and the majestic weedy and leafy seadragons. The protected areas and extensive meadows of seagrass around Bremer Bay create a haven for the leafy and weedy seadragons and their juveniles. Craig Lebens and his wife Anne Stephens, owners of Bremer Bay Dive & Sports, have witnessed hundreds of people’s reactions to seeing these special species for the first time. The couple talked to us about their vibrant stomping grounds and experiences studying the leafy seadragon.
Lebens is an advocate for getting in the water and experiencing the underwater world first hand. He takes visitors on diving and snorkeling tours and often shows visitors these amazing creatures for the first time. Just like Jamie Coote in Tumby Bay, South Australia, Lebens has been documenting the local populations of seadragons in his area and has an extensive photo catalogue.
Lebens wants people to know "Currently Bremer Bay is excluded from any no-take protection in the proposed South Coast Marine Park. No take zoning should be expanded to include Bremer Bay, to conserve the unique biodiversity and ecotourism value of the area."
“People in the eastern states they say that they see the same dragons year in year out at the same place. I don’t have that, I rarely see the same dragon twice.”
Seeing is believing
Anne Stephens is a seasoned educator with many years of experience not only teaching children about the magnificent underwater world at their fingertips, but actually showing them herself. One of her most effective tools is bringing the ocean into the classroom by creating a classroom aquarium. Stephens will carefully bring small fish and other creatures from their local beach or reef into the saltwater aquarium for the students to see for a short time, then release it back into the ocean. She also organises snorkeling field trips through the dive shop where the kids see the environment first hand.
Cetacean playground
Visitors to the area will often see dolphins and the sheltered bays are well known resting grounds for southern right whales and their calves. In recent years, the offshore deep water ecosystem of Bremer Canyon has been identified as one of the Southern Hemisphere's biggest seasonal populations of killer whales.
