Life's a bowl of lobsters at Australia's freshest seafood lunch

About 20 of us are tucking into fresh lobster on a white tablecloth-covered bench, midway through a seafood cruise on a pleasure boat in Mandurah, about an hour south of Perth, when the aquatic mammals begin their show.

The Sea West staff on this Wild Seafood Cruise said we could be lucky enough to see dolphins. As we train our eyes on the spot in the water, the dolphins pop up and down for a few minutes, while our servers top-up our wine and champagne, and crack open more cold West Australian beers.

Have you ever eaten lobster you have caught that day? It's not just the luxury of the chosen few, but something we have the opportunity to do out on the calm waters of the Peel-Harvey Estuary, a wetland where dolphins breed freely, without the threat of sharks. The crew log their dolphin sightings in a "fin book", and claim to be able to identify each animal by the unique marks on its dorsal fin.

Prior to lunch, we pulled up lobster "pots" from the Indian Ocean (they had been set 24 hours earlier) and learned about the western rock lobster (also called a crayfish) and how they must measure at least 76 millimetres in upper shell length to keep and eat. It takes seven years to get to this size, which could be part of the reason they are priced at a premium.

Pulling up the pots - basket traps with a bait of smelly, oily fish-heads inside - is a fun-filled affair and the staff yell "Go! Go! Go!" as guests take turns hauling on the rope to lug in our catch. Before boarding the boat, I knew I would feel sorry for the lobsters, and I do, but the staff make it exciting to see how many are pulled up each time, varying from around six in one trap to zero in another. We learn how to tell the crustacean's sex; males have two penises (true story) and females have large flaps underneath their tails where they carry their eggs.

"You never know what you'll get in there. We've pulled up baby sharks. Octopus are quite common," Nat, one of our tour guides, says.

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The tour is all about catching and dining on the freshest ingredients, from the sea to the plate. We eat the lobsters as sashimi - which, surprisingly, tastes like very little, with a texture chewier than other sashimi I've tried. The headline act, BBQ-grilled lobster with garlic butter, is clean, fresh and moreish. We eat eight courses including Abrolhos Island scallops on radish remoulade, a scrumptious morsel of Cone Bay barramundi with a zesty dressing and rocket salad, creamy rock oysters, Fremantle octopus and Shark Bay prawns.

Midway through our courses we take our delicious WA wines (I try a Howard Park riesling - citrusy and refreshing - but many opt for local beers including Gage Roads) to the upper deck, and we cruise along Mandurah's artificially created canals which they call "the Venice of Australia" and see how the other half live. While Louis Armstrong croons "what a wonderful world" through the boat's sound system, we smile into the sun.

WHAT: Sea West's Wild Seafood Experience in Mandurah, Western Australia.

HOW MUCH: $379 per person.

EXPLORE MORE: sea-west.com.au

The writer was a guest of Tourism Western Australia.