Ile des Phoques

Ile des Phoques, Freycinet

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-09-29

Off the Freycinet coast, a rugged granite island rises from the cold Tasman Sea, and the moment you drop in, the seals find you. Ile des Phoques, the Island of Seals, is home to a colony of Australian fur seals that treat divers as playthings, spiralling and darting through the water with a speed and curiosity that never fails to delight. Beneath the island, cathedral-like caves and archways glow with sponge and anemone, and divers regularly rank it among the best cold-water dives in the world. It is Tasmania at its wild, theatrical best.

Ile des Phoques is a small granite island, part of the Schouten Island group off the Freycinet Peninsula on Tasmania's east coast. Its name is French for Island of Seals, and the Australian fur seals that haul out and breed here, a species hunted almost to extinction and now recovered, are the heart of the experience. The island is a nature reserve, home not just to seals but to white-bellied sea eagles, cormorants and other seabirds, and it is reached by boat from Coles Bay and the Freycinet coast. The cold, clean water and the dramatic granite geology combine to make it one of the state's signature dives.

The diving here is built around the island's caves and archways. Large, cathedral-like caverns cut through the granite, their walls and ceilings carpeted in sponge, jewel anemone and zoanthid that glow under a torch, and the openings let in shafts of light that give the caves their rainbow reputation. The seals use these caves as a playground, and divers share them, the animals swooping through the light and the divers below. Depths are moderate, generally within recreational range, but the site is offshore and exposed, and the caves are an overhead environment, so it rewards capable divers and calm conditions. It is as much a place to be entertained by the seals as to explore the geology.

The fur seals are the show. Curious, fast and utterly at home, they buzz divers, mouth their fins and hang in the water just out of reach, and a good dive can mean a dozen or more in the water at once. The caves themselves are alive with colour, their surfaces dense with sponge, jewel anemones and zoanthids, and butterfly perch and boarfish school in the openings. Southern rock lobster tuck into the cracks, and the granite walls carry the rich invertebrate growth that cold, clean water produces. Between May and August, humpback and southern right whales pass the island on migration, and dolphins are a common sight, so the wider area adds a chance of bigger animals to the seal encounter.

Ile des Phoques is exposed, offshore, cold-water diving. Water temperature ranges from around 12°C in winter to 18°C in summer, so a drysuit or heavy semi-dry is the rule. Visibility is often very good, ten to twenty-five metres in the clean Tasman water, and best in calm conditions. The island sits off an exposed coast, so swell and wind govern access and the boat run from Coles Bay is a genuine trip, meaning the diving depends on settled weather. Current can run around the island, and the caves, while large, are overhead environments that call for good buoyancy and awareness. As with all Tasmanian diving, the cold is constant and the rewards are worth dressing for.

The combination of playful seals and glowing caves makes Ile des Phoques a photographer's and an experience diver's site in equal measure. The caverns are spectacular subjects, and the seals provide the action, while the wider Freycinet coast, with its granite peaks and white beaches above the water, makes the trip out an event in itself. It pairs naturally with the other east-coast Tasmanian dives, and on the right day it lives up to its billing as a world-class cold-water site.

Ile des Phoques is the dive that converts people to cold water. The seals come without fail, the caves glow with sponge and light, and the wild Freycinet coast frames the whole thing. It asks for a drysuit, a boat and a calm day, and it gives back an encounter with one of the ocean's most charismatic animals in some of the most beautiful underwater scenery in the country.

## Site Access and Logistics

Ile des Phoques is a boat dive off the Freycinet Peninsula on Tasmania's east coast, reached by charter from Coles Bay and the surrounding coast. There is no shore access to the island, which is a nature reserve, and trips run when the weather allows, since the site is offshore and exposed. Tasmanian dive operators run guided trips, supplying gear and the local knowledge the caves and conditions require.

The moderate depths keep most of the diving within recreational range, but the offshore exposure, the cold and the overhead caves make it best suited to Advanced Open Water divers with cold-water experience and good buoyancy. A drysuit or heavy semi-dry is essential, a surface marker buoy standard, and a torch valuable for the caves. As a nature reserve, the island and its seals are protected, so divers let the animals approach on their own terms and keep clear of the seabird colonies above.

Charters and guided dives to Ile des Phoques run from Freycinet operators including [GoDive Tasmania](https://godivetas.com.au).

## Sources

- GoDive Tasmania, Ile des Phoques, dive with the seals: [https://godivetas.com.au](https://godivetas.com.au) - Discover Tasmania, diving and snorkelling: [https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/things-to-do/outdoor-and-adventure/diving-and-snorkelling/](https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/things-to-do/outdoor-and-adventure/diving-and-snorkelling/) - East Coast Cruises, Ile des Phoques tour: [https://eastcoastcruises.com.au/ile-des-phoques.php](https://eastcoastcruises.com.au/ile-des-phoques.php) - Our Tasmania, natural Tasmania islands: [https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/natural-tas-islands.html](https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/natural-tas-islands.html) - Wikipedia, Ile des Phoques: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ile_des_Phoques](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ile_des_Phoques)