This paper presents the results ofan experimental study on the near-field diffusion of bluff buoyant turbulent surface jets with small (source) Richardson number in a large body of water without any ambient currents. It has been found that the velocity scale decreases inversely with the axial distance x from the outfall whereas the vertical and surface length scaleshandbgrow linearly withx. The variation of the coefficients in the relations for these scales, with the source Richardson number has been evaluated using the experimental observations.