Albany · Australia · Lagoon
Emu Point
A sheltered 6 m cove dive around a swimming jetty
Photo: Peter Southwood · CC BY-SA 3.0
Emu Point sits at the southern end of Oyster Harbour: a protected cove with a U-shaped swimming jetty, parking close by and an easy walk-in entry. The dive is shallow, 6 m at the most, which is why it is used for developing skills, and the jetty pilons hold bream, whiting and stingrays. The harbour water often runs two or three degrees cooler than the ocean outside.
Where it is and how deep
34.9971° S, 117.9478° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The cove is protected and the water is shallow, so the dive is about as unhurried as diving gets: 6 m at the deepest, an easy walk in beside the jetty, and parking close enough that kitting up is no effort. It is a useful site for developing skills - buoyancy, drills, a refresher after a long break - because nothing about the water here adds pressure to what you are practising.
The U-shaped swimming jetty is the structure worth diving. Bream and whiting hold in and around the pilons, and stingrays turn up on the sand between them. Being harbour water rather than ocean, it can often be two or three degrees cooler than the sea outside, so a dive here may want more thermal protection than a boat dive on the same day, shallow as it is.
Marine life and season
- Stingrays
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Prime |
Season follows Albany: Charters run year-round; December to March is the dry, warm half of the year, June to August the wet half with July the wettest month, and the whales are in the Sound July to October.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the dive at Emu Point?+
It is a shallow site with a maximum of 6 m, which is part of why it is used for developing skills rather than for depth.
Is Emu Point colder than diving in the Sound?+
Often, yes. It is harbour water at the southern end of Oyster Harbour and can be two or three degrees cooler than the ocean.
Sources
- Emu Point (Scubago) — Scubago
- Nominatim search result for Emu Point, Albany — OpenStreetMap / Nominatim
Photo credits
- A pale six-armed sand star lying on sandy bottom at Oyster Harbour moorings by Peter Southwood, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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