Seal School is Scuba Doctor's name for the dive on the northern side of Kanowna Island, where the juvenile fur seals congregate in the kelp gullies and the sheltered water between the island and the Prom, and it is the alternative to the Seal Colony dive when a southerly swell is running onto the island's exposed face. The terrain is the same: a granite boulder slope thick with kelp in the shallows, broken into crevices and gullies, levelling at about 25 m before the sand drops to 40 m. The difference is orientation and mood.

Facing north, the site takes less swell and is diveable on south-westerly through south-easterly winds, and because it is where the young animals gather, the seal encounters here are the most playful on the island – groups of pups and yearlings that treat divers as something to be investigated, mouthed and out-swum. Beneath the kelp the rock carries the usual exposed-Prom encrusting community of sponges, ascidians and bryozoans, and crayfish are present in the ledges; fish are sweep, butterfly perch, wrasse, morwong and leatherjackets, with bullseyes in the shaded gutters. Visibility is generally very good.

New Zealand fur seals occur among the Australian fur seals here. Everything that applies to the colony dive applies to Seal School: the island is inside the marine national park, the breeding colony is protected by vessel exclusion zones that are larger in November–January and whose exact distances should be confirmed with Parks Victoria, white sharks visit the colony, and the site is reached only by private or club boats on calm days from Tidal River or Port Welshpool. As a pair, Seal School and the Seal Colony give a boat two seal dives on the same island in different conditions, and either would rank among the best big-animal dives in south-eastern Australia.

Boat only. The nearest launch is the Tidal River beach ramp at the western end of Norman Bay (4WD beach launch, key and deposit from the Parks Victoria office; needs several people and calm surf), from which the western islands are 5–12 km. Larger trailer boats launch at Port Welshpool (sealed ramp, Corner Inlet) and run about 50–60 km around South East Point – 1.5–2 hours – or at Sandy Point (Waratah Bay, beach ramp) and run 35–45 km south-east.

Sites are exposed to Bass Strait and require settled weather, a seaworthy boat, radio, and self-sufficiency: there is no rescue or refuelling closer than Port Welshpool. The Seal School site is on the northern, Prom-facing side of Kanowna, about 11 km from Tidal River, and gives more shelter from southerly swell than the colony side. The same seal-colony vessel exclusion zones apply (check Parks Victoria for current distances); swim in from outside the zone.

Best with calm seas, no swell and no wind; light offshore south-westerly to south-easterly winds may be acceptable because the site faces north towards the Prom. Scuba Doctor notes that surge can be problematic and that the prevailing westerlies affect exposure. Slack water preferred.

Late summer and autumn most reliable; exclusion zones largest in November–January.

Enter outside the exclusion zone and swim to the northern rocky slope, settling in the kelp gullies at 8–15 m where the young seals school. Work along the slope with the island on one shoulder, staying above 25 m (the bottom drops to 40 m nearby), turn at half gas and return to be picked up under an SMB by a live boat.

No dive charter operates at Wilsons Promontory. Sites are dived from club and private trailer boats – Dive La Trobe, VSAG, Melbourne University Underwater Club and Dive Victoria Group run occasional camping-and-diving trips – launching at Tidal River (beach launch, permit/key from Parks Victoria), Port Welshpool or Sandy Point. Wilsons Promontory Cruises (Port Welshpool) runs sightseeing cruises to Skull Rock and the islands but no diving.