Below Sugarloaf Point, grey nurse sharks breed in vast caverns. Divers come from all over the world to dive in these underwater caves, that are sometimes packed with up to forty grey nurse sharks and massed schools of tuna, black cod and kingfish.

In 1992, Seal Rocks was put on the world's map, when it flickered on television screens across the nation as the site of the biggest whale rescue in history. Thirty-six false killer whales were saved by hundreds of volunteers who transported them from where they had beached themselves at Lighthouse Beach to calmer waters on the other side of the cape. At Boat Beach they were guided out to freedom across Sugarloaf Bay.

Apart from the whale rescue and the ensuing annual inundation by campers pursuing a low-cost beach holiday in summertime, nothing much has changed since the 1950s in Seal Rocks. The assortment of shoebox-style cottages with butterfly roofs, mostly built by squatter fishermen from the Hunter Valley back then, still look out over Sugarloaf Bay at a coastline classified by the National Trust for its inherent rugged beauty. All but the handful of houses which are now freehold title, and some on crown land, lie in Myall Lakes National Park.