School Holidays at Irukandji

It’s all happening here at Irukandji! School holidays are upon us and we’re preparing for a wonderfully busy time with loads of happy visitors.

For the first time ever we have had to add two extra sessions to our 7-11 year old Mini Marine Biologist program and all 3 days are already booked out! There is space left in our older 12-15yr old Mini Marine Biologist and this one includes the snorkel so please click the link below if you are interested. This is really exciting for us and we can’t wait to be able to share our new aquarium with a whole lot of enthusiastic kids.
As we are still in the midst of the Covid pandemic we are advising all guests to make a booking with us before coming in. Although our new facility is quite a bit larger than the previous one, we are controlling numbers in-water, we do not wish to exceed the 1 person per 4sqmtr rule in the lagoons.
Bookings can only be made via our website, where you will find all the information you need to decide on your activities: BOOK HERE

Our Wonderful Volunteers

Irukandji has been hosting a volunteer program for several years now, and many of our staff began their careers as a volunteer. Being a volunteer offers so many wonderful opportunities to spend time with and learn about our fascinating marine life, meet new people, and gain a whole lot of skills! Our volunteers come from all walks of life with a range of skills, personalities, and backgrounds which helps to create an exciting and eclectic atmosphere amongst our team.

We take on new volunteers in an induction approximately every 3 months and we’ll be due for our next intake very soon. If you are interested in the program you can find out more about it and make an application via our website here.

Sea Shelter & Irukandji

Wildlife rescues & rehabilitation happening again at Irukandji

Though the Sea Shelter Hospital with its individual rooms will not be completed onsite for quite a while, this has not stopped us from setting up within our massive new quarantine area ready for for the rescued sea turtles, sea snakes, sharks, rays & other fish who are not able to be helped on dry land. We’re happy to say that we are doing exactly as intended and not a moment to soon as the animals have been flooding in over the past weeks. Currently housed are three sea turtles that were rescued from various locations in Port Stephens as well as Stingrays and stingarees that were found discarded from a fishing boat catch at Jimmy’s Beach at Hawks Nest.

The three turtles are in various states of health. Ally, our smallest turtle has a fishing line injury on her flipper as was quite emaciated when she arrived. She’s shown some signs of stress but we are happy to report that she’s been eating more each day and we’re hoping to be able to keep not too long until she’s well enough to be released.
The other two sea turtles are under close observation from both Ryan and the vets to assess if they’ll need to be sent down to Taronga Wildlife Hospital for further treatment.

A couple of weeks ago Sea Shelter answered a call regarding a trapped Port Jackson shark in a rock pool at Fingal Bay. The volunteers found she had been placed there by humans and was distressed due to water temperature, lack of oxygen, the stress of already being captured and the inability to escape her surroundings. The Sea Shelter volunteers stayed with her helping her breathing back in the ocean ensuring she was going to be ok and released her when her strength returned.

Unfortunately, there was a tragic event at Jimmy’s Beach last week where hundreds of stingrays and fish were found dead and dying after being bycatch from commercial fishing operation. The team of amazing Sea Shelter volunteers and Irukandji staff did all they could to assist the live and count the animals losses. Hundreds were deceased, about 30 healthy enough to leave at the beach and almost 30 that were in a really bad state were retrieved and returned to Irukandji for further care. Of those only a handful of common stingarees and kapala stingarees survived and are here in our quarantine tanks. Once we have nursed them back to health we will return them to the wild at Jimmys Beach. The event really highlights just how certain fishing practises result in so many unnecessary deaths. There are some ways that we can all help such as spreading awareness about these issues and being careful with the seafood we choose to eat. We recommend downloading the app called GoodFish Australia to help you make the most sustainable choices when buying seafood. CLICK HERE for info

For more information about Sea Shelter and Irukandji’s conversation efforts and how you can help, please check out the WEBSITE HERE