Introducing the personalities of Port Phillip

We’ve got a team of lovely locals to introduce to you! These Port Phillip Bay personalities can’t get enough of their home and are keen to share it with their human neighbours all around the bay. They know lots about the other inhabitants of Port Phillip Bay and how their society all fits together, and they are always ready with tips on how to care for our shared home!

Let us introduce to you…

Jacko the Port Jackson Shark

Jacko is shy and likes nothing more than lying under a shelf of rock, crunching up shellfish. With gentle, curious eyes and beautiful thick stripes, Jacko is here to show that there are many kinds of sharks living in Port Phillip Bay, and most of them are harmless!

Swish the Common Dolphin

Swish the Common Dolphin loves to frolic in the clear waters of Mornington, chasing fish and squid and unsuspecting family members. Thrill-seeking Swish sometimes likes to ride the wave at the front of passing boats, but her family and friends worry about her being run into by someone who isn’t paying enough attention.

Hoodie the Hooded Plover

Hoodie lives only in the far south of the Bay, plucking tasty invertebrates from the sand and nesting in the dunes. But Hoodie knows that all the Bay’s beaches are important for other feathered friends too. Not much of a fan of crowds, Hoodie spends a lot of time scuttling away from people and loose dogs.

Elektra the Verco’s Nudibranch

Elektra the Verco’s Nudibranch is brightly coloured as a warning to others that she won’t be tasty, so she leads a laid-back life. She loves to eat feathery blue bryozoans (invertebrate ‘moss animals’) called Bugula. In Elektra’s opinion the Bugula under Blairgowrie Pier are the most delicious in the whole bay. Once Elektra has slowly chomped her way to one end of the pier, she just turns around and chomps her way back again.

Will the Weedy Seadragon

Will likes to spend the day playing hide-and-seek in the seagrass next to Portsea Pier while boats and waves surge overhead. His camouflage is so good that even his friends sometimes lose him in the seagrass! Will is happy to share his space with curious divers and snorkellers, provided they don’t get too close! After the mating season, Will embraces fatherhood in full – he carries his eggs around attached to the underside of his tail until the young ones are ready to hatch.

Bluey the Little Penguin

Bluey is a little penguin with a big personality. Bluey isn’t afraid of exploring new surroundings, always on the lookout for little fish to munch on. This curious and adventurous spirit runs in the family, and explains why Bluey’s ancestors were so quick to set up home in the St Kilda Breakwater soon after it was built in the 1950s.

I’m still waiting fuuurr a name!

Oh no! What’s this? It seems that this beautiful Australian Fur Seal is without a name! That can’t be – without a name, we have no story! Can you help us name this important Port Phillip Bay personality? Over the next week we will take your suggestions to the rest of the team and our seal can pick some favourites. Then we’ll all have a vote and see if we can get this seal a name for Day by the Bay.

Cast your vote now!

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These incredible character cartoons are courtesy of Amellia Formby from the Wing Threads project. Catch Amellia, complete with her microlight aircraft, at Day by the Bay Point Cook on Saturday March 23.