Point Lowly

Point Lowly Dive Guide, Upper Spencer Gulf

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2025-05-09

Update, October 2026: the 2026 aggregation collapsed. SARDI's standard surveys in June and July 2026 found no cuttlefish at all, and the Department for Environment and Water (DEW) put the population at 1,811, the lowest estimate since surveys began in 1998. SARDI considers the harmful algal bloom, which pushed up into this area around late December 2025 and January 2026, likely to be a significant contributing factor. From 1 July 2026 the state applied a 90-day exclusion zone to the part of the Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park between Black Point and Stony Point, sanctuary zone included, banning swimming, snorkelling, diving and anchoring. The minister can revoke it early if numbers recover, and we found no notice saying whether it ended on schedule or was extended, so check DEW's latest advice before you get in the water. Taking cuttlefish anywhere in northern Spencer Gulf is illegal all year, with fines of up to $20,000.

Point Lowly is the tip of a small peninsula north-north-east of Whyalla in upper Spencer Gulf, marked by the historic Point Lowly Lighthouse. Its rocky shore hosts the only known mass breeding aggregation of giant Australian cuttlefish in the world, a shallow shore dive and snorkel where, in a good year, the reef is covered in displaying animals. This guide covers the site, what a normal season looks like, and what changed in 2025 and 2026.

The Site

The diving is on the peninsula's boulder shore at its two cuttlefish locations, Stony Point and Black Point. Stony Point, where the guided tours start, has a path down over the rocks beside the fence that marks the western boundary of the Santos property; Black Point has a wooden staircase down to the shore. This is Barngarla country, and the Cuttlefish Coast Sanctuary Zone along this coast is of cultural significance to the Barngarla people. The sanctuary zone was added to the National Heritage List in February 2023.

Under water the coast is a narrow band of boulder reef and seaweed, some of the only reef habitat in the upper gulf. That is why the cuttlefish come here: SARDI's Mike Steer has explained that this is the only place in northern Spencer Gulf with enough rock for the animals to lay their eggs, the rest being sand and mangroves. The reef is also important habitat for purple sea urchins, reef fish and southern calamari. Ashore, the shingle ridges behind the beach are more than 5,000 years old.

The water is shallow. Diving Adelaide describes the dive as a maximum of about 5 metres, and females lay their eggs under rocks at 2 to 5 metres, so this is a dive for slow, careful buoyancy rather than depth, and it works just as well on snorkel.

The Aggregation in a Normal Year

In a normal year tens of thousands of giant Australian cuttlefish (*Ascarosepion apama*, long known as *Sepia apama*) gather on this reef between May and August to breed, and their eggs hatch from September to late October. Diving Adelaide puts the best viewing in June and July. Numbers swing widely from year to year: SARDI's estimates since 1998 range from 13,500 in 2013 to 247,000 in 2020, with about 64,000 in 2025. Elsewhere in their range giant cuttlefish breed in pairs or small groups that rarely exceed ten animals.

In the aggregation males can outnumber females by up to 11 to one. Large males, up to about 50 centimetres long and 10 kilograms, put on rapidly changing colour displays and guard females and egg sites, while smaller "sneaker" males take on female colours and shape to slip past them and mate. Females fix their eggs one at a time to the underside of rocks. The species breeds once and dies soon afterwards, so later in the season the reef holds many weakened animals, and that draws predators. Researchers diving at the aggregation near Whyalla filmed an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin herding a cuttlefish onto sand, killing it, beating it with its snout until the ink drained, then scraping it along the bottom to strip off the cuttlebone before eating it. Long-nosed fur seals also prey on giant cuttlefish. Humpback whales visit this coast in the cooler months, and southern right whales are occasionally seen from the point in winter.

2025 and 2026

The decline started before the bloom. SARDI's estimate fell below 100,000 in 2024 (81,420) for the first time in a decade and dropped another 23 per cent in 2025, to 63,734. In late August 2025 the state and federal governments funded an air bubble curtain off Stony Point to protect the eggs and hatchlings in case the algal bloom moved up the gulf, and part of the marine park around it was closed to the public until 26 November 2025.

In 2026 the cuttlefish did not arrive in numbers. SARDI's divers counted none on their standard June and July surveys, which SARDI called unprecedented. DEW's own surveys from May to August counted only a few dozen animals. Scaled up from its July survey, that gives 113 cuttlefish by SARDI's method, or 1,811 when divers also searched under rocks with torches, and 1,811 is the figure DEW announced. SARDI found no sign that water temperatures had been unusual and concluded that the algal bloom, given its known impact on calamari and abalone, is the most likely explanation. Whyalla Dive Shop and Cutty's Tours cancelled their 2026 seasons, and the state and Adelaide University have begun a research project into the decline.

There is a precedent for recovery. After the 2013 low of 13,500, the estimate climbed past 100,000 by 2015, and SARDI's Mike Steer noted that in 2026 adults were still returning to the site, spawning and laying eggs.

Conditions and Safety

SARDI's temperature loggers at Point Lowly have recorded water from 11.3 °C, in August, to 27.8 °C, in February, so winter diving here is cold: Diving Adelaide kits its winter guests in 7 mm wetsuits with hooded vests, 5 mm boots and gloves. The entry is over rock and booties or reef shoes are essential. Stay on the public side of the bollards and wire rope that separate the cuttlefish access area from the Santos property; going onto Santos land is prohibited. With so few animals left, local operators have asked visitors to leave the remaining cuttlefish undisturbed so they can finish breeding.

Site Access and Logistics

Whyalla is about 395 kilometres from Adelaide, and Point Lowly is on the peninsula north-north-east of the town. At Stony Point a 60-metre path of recycled materials leads down over the rocks beside the Santos western boundary fence to the high-water mark; at Black Point a wooden staircase leads down to the rocky shore. Diving Adelaide reports toilets, change rooms and picnic facilities at the site, with coffee and food trucks on most weekends in season, while South Australian Trails says there are none at Black Point or Stony Point and that the nearest are towards the lighthouse, so check on arrival.

In a normal season you can dive or snorkel on your own or with a guide. Whyalla Dive Shop (33B Playford Avenue, Whyalla, whydive.com.au), which says it has worked with the aggregation for 25 years, runs guided dives and snorkels from Stony Point and hires gear, but it cancelled its 2026 season because of the low numbers; the old Whyalla Diving Services web address now leads to its site. Diving Adelaide runs guided weekends from Adelaide with all gear supplied, and Experiencing Marine Sanctuaries, a not-for-profit, has run guided CuttleFest snorkels in past seasons. In any year, check DEW's advice on the exclusion zone first. Our giant cuttlefish article covers the animal itself, and the Whyalla Jetty guide covers the town jetty.

Sources

- SA Department for Environment and Water: More monitoring and research for Giant Australian Cuttlefish as numbers reach historic lows (21 August 2026) - SA Department for Environment and Water: More protection for Giant Australian Cuttlefish (30 June 2026) - SARDI: 2026 Giant Australian Cuttlefish population estimate, advice note to PIRSA, 7 August 2026, PDF (pir.sa.gov.au) - PIRSA: Giant Australian Cuttlefish management (pir.sa.gov.au, recreational fishing) - InDaily: Temporary restrictions as giant cuttlefish numbers plunge (30 June 2026) - Whyalla City Council: Permanent protection for Giant Australian Cuttlefish now in place (whyalla.sa.gov.au, latest news) - National Parks and Wildlife Service SA: Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park - Scuba Divers Federation of SA: newsletters of September/October 2025, July 2026 and October 2026, sdfsa.net - Finn, Tregenza and Norman (2009): Preparing the perfect cuttlefish meal, complex prey handling by dolphins, PLoS ONE - Wikipedia: Giant cuttlefish - Wikipedia: Point Lowly - Wikipedia: Whyalla - Diving Adelaide: Whyalla Giant Cuttlefish Migration - South Australian Trails: Cuttlefish Dive Experience, Whyalla - Whyalla Dive Shop - Experiencing Marine Sanctuaries

Header photo: Two giant Australian cuttlefish on the boulder and seaweed reef off Point Lowly, near Stony Point, in May 2021, by Alex Stuart, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.