Rye Pier
Conditions & tides
Scored by DiveConnect's site-physics model
Marine forecast via Copernicus Marine. Score is a rule-based guide from swell/wind vs. the site's exposure — always dive your own assessment.
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About this site
Rye Pier is a shallow pier dive on the Mornington Peninsula in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. The maximum depth is about 15 ft (5 m), and the bottom around the pier is clean sand.
The sand is often a good place to see small stingarees, huge smooth stingrays and angel sharks, so watch where you put your hands and knees, and watch out for globefish too. Big-belly seahorses, the largest seahorse species in Australia, live here. Flatheads, leatherjackets, morwongs and wrasse shelter under the pier, and shags swim underwater between the pylons hunting them. Fur seals and the occasional dolphin visit.
Rye Pier and Blairgowrie Pier are the best places to see the annual giant spider crab migration, from late May through mid-June. Water runs from 8 C in winter to 20 C in late summer (46 to 68 F). Visibility averages 6 to 10 m (18 to 30 ft) and can top 15 m (45 ft) at times.
Marine life here
Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.
WrasseWrasseReported here · unconfirmed
StingrayStingrayReported here · unconfirmed
CrocodilefishCrocodilefishReported here · unconfirmed
DolphinDolphinReported here · unconfirmed
Great spider crabLeptomithrax gaimardiiReported here · unconfirmed
Short-tailed CeratosomaCeratosoma brevicaudatumReported here · unconfirmed
Eleven-armed Sea StarCoscinasterias muricataReported here · unconfirmed
Bigbelly SeahorseHippocampus abdominalisReported here · unconfirmed
Pale OctopusOctopus pallidusReported here · unconfirmed
GlobefishDiodon nicthemerusReported here · unconfirmed
Tasmanian BlennyParablennius tasmanianusReported here · unconfirmed
Bluespotted GoatfishUpeneichthys vlamingiiReported here · unconfirmed
Shorthead SeahorseHippocampus brevicepsReported here · unconfirmed
SeahorseSeahorseConfirmed present · 2 independent sources
OctopusOctopusReported here · unconfirmed
NudibranchNudibranchReported here · unconfirmed
SquidSquidReported here · unconfirmed
Durable tips from divers — access, hazards, marine life, facilities. For day-of conditions, use the report tool in the conditions card above.
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