Characteristics

• White’s Seahorse, also known as the Sydney Seahorse, is a small, spiny species that grows up to about 16 cm in length. It can vary in colour from pale yellow and cream to brown, grey, or even black—often with small dark spots or mottled patterns that help it blend into its surroundings. Like all seahorses, it swims upright using its tiny dorsal fin for propulsion and curls its prehensile tail to cling onto seagrass, sponges, or artificial structures.
• Life span: 3-5 years

• Breeding/reproduction: White’s Seahorses are monogamous and form long-term pair bonds. During courtship, pairs perform daily greeting rituals involving colour changes and tail-holding dances. Like other seahorses, the male becomes “pregnant”, carrying the developing embryos in a specialised pouch for around two to three weeks before giving birth to tiny, fully formed young. Breeding typically occurs from October to March, when water temperatures are warm.

Habitat

This species is endemic to the east coast of Australia, occurring from Hervey Bay in Queensland to Jervis Bay in New South Wales. It inhabits shallow coastal and estuarine environments, often found clinging to soft corals, sponges, seagrass, and man-made structures like piers and nets. One of its best-known homes is Port Stephens, where it is now the focus of a world-first seahorse conservation program.

Ecology

White’s Seahorses play an important role in maintaining the balance of their coastal ecosystems. They feed on small crustaceans such as mysid shrimp and copepods, using their long snouts to suck up prey. Their presence indicates healthy seagrass and sponge habitats, which also provide nurseries for many fish species. However, because they are relatively sedentary and have limited swimming ability, they are highly sensitive to habitat loss and water quality changes.

Fun Fact

The White’s Seahorse is one of only two seahorse species listed as endangered in the world. It has become a flagship species for marine conservation in New South Wales, helping raise awareness of the importance of seagrass and estuarine habitats.

Threats

• Habitat loss and degradation due to coastal development, dredging, and boat activity
• Pollution and declining water quality in estuaries
• Storm events and climate change, which damage seagrass and sponge communities
• Bycatch and entanglement in protective swimming nets
• Limited dispersal ability, making local populations highly vulnerable to decline

How You Can Help

• Protect seagrass and estuarine habitats by reducing pollution and runoff from land.
• Avoid anchoring in seagrass beds and keep a safe distance when boating near shallow areas.
• Support marine sanctuaries and citizen science projects that monitor seahorse populations.
• Reduce plastic use to prevent debris entering waterways.
• Spread awareness about the importance of these tiny but mighty ocean guardians!

You can also Join our Tweed Seagrass Citizen Science Project! Get in touch! info@dolphinresearchaustralia.org 

Also known as: Pied Shag or Great Pied Cormorant

Bundjalung name: Guhndiwuny
Status (IUCN): Least Concern

Characteristics

• Length/size: 65-85cm tall and and a wingspan up to 130cm. These birds weigh around 2kg. 

• Colour: Black on the back and upper surface of the wings, and white on the underbelly. They have an orange/yellow patch on their face and a blue eye ring with green eye. Long hooked bill is grey, and legs with webbed feet are black. 

• Breeding/reproduction: They primarily breed in small colonies (less than 30 pairs) close to the sea. The nests are up to 80cm in diameter and built from sticks, seaweed and foliage and held together with droppings. While males mostly collect the material, the couple build the nest together. Mostly monogamous, pied cormorants reach maturity at two years and lay 2-5 eggs a year. The parents share caring duties, regurgitating for their young who fledge after about three months. 

• Diet: Primarily fish (benthic fish make up 90% of their diet), these birds usually “snorkel” at the surface then dive to pursue fish by swimming using their feet for propulsion and their wings to steer and give them a boost. Specialised nictating membranes on their eyes work like goggles to help them see underwater. They also eat crustaceans like prawns and shrimp and some molluscs. 

Habitat: Found throughout mainland Australia as well as New Zealand, these birds are often seen characteristically spreading their wings to dry close to rivers and beaches (as their wings are not totally waterproof). Commonly found around mangroves and often seen on both the Brunswick and Richmond Rivers. 

Threats: Sometimes stealing fish from fishermen’s lines or nets means these birds are often threatened by entanglement or injuries from fishing gear. Habitat loss and degradation, plastic pollution and marine oil and chemical spills also pose a threat to these birds.

IUCN Redlist: Least Concern 

Bundjalung name: Yuruhl (eel)

Characteristics

• Length: Up to 100cm long (but more commonly around 50cm) 

• Colour: White snout with yellow, brown, black and white body made up of a striped and speckled pattern.

• Diet: Primarily crustaceans, sometimes small fish.

• Lifespan: Fifteen years. 

Fun Fact

Habitat: Found throughout the Indo-Pacific region, in the tropical waters of Australia. Often found in areas with seagrass as well as rocky reefs, and also possible to spot in tidal pools (look for them at Julian Rocks or Flatrock) 

Threats: This is one of the most widely spread and populous moray eel species but like many ocean creatures their habitats and prey species are potentially at risk from human behaviours. Issues such as climate change, pollution, bycatch, overfishing, habitat degradation are threats to these fish and the prey they depend on.

Bundjalung name: Jalum (fish)
Status (IUCN):  Not Evaluated

Characteristics

• Length: Up to 43cm long (but more commonly around 18cm) 

• Colour: Whitish grey fish covered in small raised spines and dark spots and with three dark bars – at the eye, on the operculum, and behind the pectoral fin. Very rounded body, broad head, large eyes and distinctive beak with fused teeth forming a single plate in both jaws. 

• Diet: They use their beak to crush small hard-shelled invertebrates such as sea urchins, crustaceans and gastropods.

• Lifespan: At least ten years. 

Fun Fact

Habitat: Endemic to Australia, these fish are found on coastal and offshore reefs from Moreton Bay to northern Tasmania. 

Threats: While not known to be at risk at a population level, there are still many potential threats facing this species such as climate change, bycatch, habitat loss, ocean acidification and pollution.

Also known as: Indo-Pacific Man O’ War

Bundjalung name: Unknown
Status (IUCN): Not evaluated

Characteristics

• Length/size: Nudibranchs are a diverse group of marine gastropod molluscs. Their size can range from just a few millimeters in length, to up to 30 centimetres long.

• Colour: They are commonly referred to as ‘butterflies of the sea’ with their vast variety of colouring and extravagant body forms. Their colours can range from vibrant purples, to vivid blues, fluorescent orange and more.

• Breeding/reproduction: All nudibranchs are hermaphrodites, meaning they can act as both male or female. Their eggs are primarily deposited in a coiled mass on underwater surfaces. Most species emerge from the egg as free swimming larvae with a tiny remnant shell, however a few species will emerge from the egg crawling along the seafloor as a juvenile.

• Diet: Carnivorous, feeding primarily on marine sponges, fish eggs, anemones, corals, barnacles and even other nudibranchs. As they are essentially blind, nudibranchs use two highly sensitive tentacles located on the tops of their head (called rhinophores) to identify their prey. Some species will absorb and display the pigment in their prey that gives it its colour once consumed.

Habitat: There are more than 3,000 known nudibranch species around the world, with more being identified almost daily. They are found throughout the world’s oceans, but are most abundant in tropical, shallow waters. Look for them on rocky surfaces, sponges and other hard substrate while snorkelling or diving in the Hope Spot. Some species, such as a few types of Glaucus (otherwise known as blue sea dragon or sea swallow), occasionally wash up on our beaches. 

Threats: Nudibranchs face a variety of threats in their natural marine environment. One of the most prominent is the degradation of their habitat due to pollution, coastal development and climate change. Overfishing, collection for the aquarium trade and the lack of legal protections of these species in many regions can leave them vulnerable to exploitation.

Also known as: Indo-Pacific Man O’ War

Bundjalung name: Unknown
Status (IUCN): Not evaluated

Characteristics

• Length/size: The bluebottle is made up of a colony of four specifically modified individuals called “zooids” that all rely on each other for survival – the zooids make up a float, tentacles, digestion and reproduction. They possess a pneumatophore, more commonly known as a float, that consists of a pear shaped sac that can reach up to 15 centimeters in length. Their tentacles can reach several meters long and have the ability to retract to just a few centimeters.

• Colour: The bluebottle mainly consists of a distinctive blue coloured float and tentacle, although the upper margins of the float can sometimes show shades of green or pink.

• Breeding/reproduction: They live for around 12 months and reproduce mostly in autumn. Bluebottles are hermaphrodites so each gonozooid, the zooids responsible for reproduction, has both male and female parts. Once eggs are fertilised, planktonic larvae undergo asexual budding to become a colonial Physalia. Once the pneumatophore reaches a size that is sufficient, the juveniles are then able to float on the surface of the ocean.

• Diet: Bluebottles feed primarily on molluscs, small crustaceans and larval fish. They have developed long, thick tentacles that contain stinging cells called nematocysts that are used to immobilise their prey. When fired, the nematocysts work by immobilizing the victim with the toxins contained within the cells. The muscles in the tentacles then contract in order to drag the prey toward their digestive polyps.

Habitat: Bluebottles are found throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans and are encountered primarily in the summer months on the eastern coast of Australia and during autumn and winter in south western Australia. They are most commonly found on exposed beaches after strong onshore north east winds have washed them onto the beach.

Threats: With up to 30,000 stings reported a year, these creatures seem to be more of a threat to humans than the other way around! 

Bluebottles can be “left-handed” or “right-handed” – an attribute that stops all of them being blown into shore at once. The ridge on top of the float projects either left or right, forming a sail that either sends them in to shore or out to sea, depending on the wind direction.

Bundjalung name: Unknown
Status: Least Concern

Characteristics

• Length/size: 90 cm long, wingspan up to 200cm. 

• Colour: Yellow head and pale grey bill, most of the body is white with dark tips on feathers.

• Breeding/reproduction: Breed in dense colonies on islands off Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand. Breeding season is in October and November. Usually one chick. Incubation period of 44 days. Breeding maturity is reached at age 6 or 7 years. Can live up to 40 years. 

• Diet: Dive into the water to grasp fish with small backward pointing serrations on bill. Stays underwater for 10 seconds usually eating the fish before surfacing

Habitat: Found in southern and eastern Australia along waters over the continental shelf.  Over May and June young birds migrate north to warmer seas in Southern Queensland and New South Wales.

Threats: Climate change causes sea level temperature rise and diminishing fish stocks is forcing gannets further out to sea and longer time away from nests. Gannets plunge-dive and pursue prey underwater therefore increasing their chances of entanglement by discarded fishing gear and plastic.  Marine debris such as rope manufactured from plastic has been found incorporated into nest building increasing chances of chicks becoming entangled.

Bundjalung name: Bijahlin
Status: Endangered (NSW)

Characteristics

• Length/size: 45 cm height, wingspan around 80cm. Bill can be up to 8cm long! 

• Colour: Black and white with long orange-red bill, red eyes and pink legs.

• Breeding/reproduction: Breeds in pairs within a territory, breeding starts in June. Two or three eggs laid on  the sand, shell grit or shingle just above the waterline. Incubation takes 28 days, shells are well camouflaged. Parent duties are shared between the sexes.

• Diet: Feed on bivalve molluscs which are pried open by their strong bills. They also feed on worms and insects. Forage by probing in mudflats or by sight.

Habitat:Found in coastal areas throughout Australia. Prefers mudflats, sandbanks, sandy ocean beaches and less common in stony or rocky estuaries. 

Threats: Habitat historically reduced by coastal  development, remaining habitat disturbed by human recreational activities, feral animal predation and dog attacks. Entanglement in discarded fishing line and rubbish.

Bundjalung name: Jalum (fish)
Status (IUCN):  Near Threatened

Characteristics

• Length/size: 100cm and up to 50kg – these fish are actually wrasse, not gropers, but their large size is unusual for wrasse and probably why they are named for the larger gropers. 

• Colour: Varies and is characteristic of age / gender – adult males are vivid blue, females are reddish brown and juveniles can be green, grey, orange or brown. They also have yellow lines around the eyes and large fleshy lips. 

• Diet: Groper primarily eat molluscs, echinoderms & crustaceans, such as crabs, prawns, sea urchins and shellfish.

• Lifespan: The blue groper lives for at least 35 years, and likely much longer. Their close relative (the western blue groper) is said to live for 70 years, based on counting the rings in their otoliths (ear bones). 

• Breeding/reproduction: Fascinatingly, gropers are sequential hermaphrodites – they all start life as females but can potentially change to become a male after they grow big enough (over 60cm). Generally they live in harems, with one male, a few females and several juveniles. If the male dies, the dominant female can change sex and colour to take his place. The larvae start their life as drifting planktonic organisms before settling in seagrass beds. They reach sexual maturity at two or three years of age, and breed between July & September.

Fun Fact

The blue groper is the state fish of NSW (and has been since 1998). 

Habitat: Found on rocky reefs in shallow waters (down to 40m) along Australia’s east coast from southern QLD to southern Victoria. Juveniles often frequent estuarine seagrass beds. These characteristic fish are endemic to Australia and are found in the Byron Bay Hope Spot year round. They tend to be quite territorial, remaining in a similar location throughout their life. 

Threats: Their often friendly and curious behaviour sometimes makes these fish an easy target for spearfishing, and this has led to a decrease in populations in the past. In 1969 they were given total protection in NSW waters but since then regulations have varied and at times various methods of recreational and commercial fishing have been allowed. Currently there’s a 12 month trial of regulations prohibiting any fishing of this species (including line fishing) in NSW, aligning the regulations with Victoria (where the blue groper is completely protected). With quite a small range (less than 64,000 km²) and its slow-growing, long-lived nature, this population is at risk from our fishing activities.