Where cuttlefish clutter

It’s the only known migration of its kind – unique not just to Australia, but to the world.

EACH YEAR ALONG the Eyre Peninsula’s Spencer Gulf in South Australia, visitors usually arrive from around the globe to see one of the marine world’s greatest natural spectacles. Just a 38km drive from the industrial and shipping town of Whyalla, in a stretch of water surrounding Point Lowly and Stony Point that includes False Bay, an annual migration of the Australian giant cuttlefish takes place. It’s the only known migration of its kind – unique not just to Australia, but to the world.

Cuttlef ish belong to the animal group known as cephalopods. They are usually solitary animals that hide camouflaged in seaweed, under rocks and in underwater crevices. But adult giant cuttlefish abandon isolation each May to August and arrive in the tens of thousands, impelled by the need to mate