Marine Life & Wildlife of Gabo Island
Where the cold swells of the Southern Ocean meet the warm East Australian Current, bringing seals, cetaceans, and hardy reptiles to Gabo’s granite shores.
Marine Mammals & Oceanic Visitors
Gabo Island and adjacent Tullaberga Island provide critical resting haul-outs for seals and a major coastal waypoint on the south-eastern whale migration corridor.
Australian Fur Seal
Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus
The Australian Fur Seal is the largest and most common seal species in south-eastern Australian waters. While major breeding colonies occur on outer islands and on nearby Kanowna Island, non-breeding bachelor bulls, sub-adults, and resting seals regularly haul out on the granite reefs of Gabo. In the water, they are agile predators consuming squid, octopus, and schooling pelagic fish.
Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
The waters surrounding Gabo Island form a major highway on the Australian "Humpback Highway". Heading north from Antarctic feeding grounds to warm subtropical calving lagoons in Queensland and the Coral Sea during autumn, they return south in spring, often accompanied by newborn calves resting in the sheltered waters of Disaster Bay and East Gippsland bays.
Common & Bottlenose Dolphins
Tursiops truncatus & Delphinus delphis
Resident and coastal pods of dolphins frequently herd schools of salmon, pilchards, and mullet into Santa Barbara Bay and around the northern breakwater, bow-riding alongside transfer boats in calm waters.
Reptiles of Gabo Island
The dark pink granite rocks absorb daytime solar heat, creating ideal micro-climates for sun-basking reptiles.
White’s Skink
Liopholis whitii
White’s Skink is a medium-sized viviparous (live-bearing) skink that thrives in complex rocky terrain. On Gabo Island, the exposed pink granite provides thermal heat during morning sun and deep sheltering fissures that protect from coastal gales and predators. They live in long-term family groups sharing burrow systems under granite slabs.
Jacky Dragon
Amphibolurus muricatus
A small, well-camouflaged dragon lizard found perching on fallen branches and fence posts across the coastal heath. Highly alert, it displays distinctive arm-waving territorial signals when approached.