Welcome to the Marine Mili series, a regular column about all things marine!  During this series I aim to inspire people to want to protect our oceans and all the marine life that call our oceans home. Hopefully after reading each column, you would have learnt something new, including what we can do to help protect and preserve our oceans. You can follow me and my journey on my Instagram page: _marine_mili. 

Do you know what the marine animal emblem of Victoria is? If you didn’t know, it’s the iconic Weedy Sea Dragon!

These special creatures are native to Australian coastal waters and are not found anywhere else in the world. 

Along our Australian coastline these majestic Sea Dragons feed on a range of small critters such as myside shrimp, larval fish, small crustaceans and plankton.

Unlike us, they don’t have teeth, so they must suck up their food with their mouths. Their long snout has special muscles that widen to adjust to the size of their prey which they then swallow whole. They also don’t have stomachs so have to eat almost constantly to stay alive.

If you’ve ever been snorkelling near Flinders or Portsea pier, you may have been lucky enough to see a Weedy Sea Dragon as they are quite common under those piers. If you haven’t, they may have been there but blended into their environment so well that you missed them.

Much like their name suggests, Weedy Sea Dragons look like weeds from the weed-like growths on their bodies. These growths closely match their environment which makes for great camouflage. 

I’ve been lucky enough to spot many Weedy Sea Dragons whilst on a dive at Flinders, but did you know there are actually three types of Sea Dragons? The Weedy and Leafy Sea Dragon can be found here in Victoria, but the rare Ruby Sea Dragon can only be found in Western Australia in deeper water. 

Whilst these “Weedies” as they are sometimes called, can primarily be found in shallow waters around seagrass beds, they can also be found living in deeper waters. These Sea Dragons are more brightly coloured with less leafy structures on their bodies than those that live in more shallow water.  

Weedy Sea Dragons have amazing colours and patterns on their bodies and faces, which helps scientists identify individuals.

Next time you go for a dive, make sure to look carefully as you may have been swimming with these incredible creatures unknowingly.