Seal Island is an island located approximately 8.5 kilometres (5 mi) south-east of Albany, Western Australia. The island is located approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) offshore from Frenchman Bay in King George Sound. The island is designated as a nature reserve (Reserve Number 32199) and has a total area of 2.8 hectares (7 acres).
George Vancouver named Seal Island in 1791 along with Breaksea Island, Michaelmas Island and other features around King George Sound. Matthew Flinders landed on Seal Island during the voyage of the Investigator in 1801, searching for items that were reportedly left by Vancouver and leaving behind a bottle containing a parchment with details of their own arrival and departure.
HMAS Perth was scuttled behind Seal Island in 2001 and is now one of Western Australia's premier dive sites.
The island is composed entirely of granite and is only accessible at the western end.
Famous quotes containing the words seal and/or island:
“What is the seal of liberation?—No longer to be ashamed in our own presence.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, confronted for a moment by this band of Island girls; their stiffness, formality, and affectation contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens. It would be the Venus de’ Medici placed beside a milliner’s doll.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)