Western Port Marine Parks

Western Port, Victoria's second largest bay, is a biological treasure-trove. Largely concealed behind a shoreline veil of marshland and mangroves, its waters contain expansive tidal flats, meadows of seagrass, deep channels, rocky reefs and sandy plains. The result is an abundance of marine life. Numerous small animals live in the mud and seagrass beds. Fish gorge themselves on these animals and waterbirds feast on them all.

The tides are the key to understanding Western Port's marine life. With every low tide, some 270 square kilometres of shallow mud flats are exposed in Western Port's northern reaches, revealing a feeding ground for thousands of wading birds. As the water streams off these flats on an ebbing tide, it flows into deeper channels carved in the soft mud. These channels gradually join together and flow into the deep channels that flank the eastern and western sides of French Island. As the tide turns and the channels fill and spill across the exposed flats larger fish, such as trevally, whiting and Dusky Morwong, move back out across the tidal plains to forage and hunt.