Hi Everyone,
It has been a very emotional month.
I was very excited to see one of our most well-known dolphins, Wave with a brand new calf on Friday February 10th. It was cold, raining and misty the day the calf was born so we decided to name the calf Misty.
It was absolutely adorable; its fin was still curled over indicating that it had only recently been born. Sadly, a week later Misty passed away. It was absolutely heartbreaking watching Wave push Misty’s body around. This grieving process is normal for bottlenose dolphins, it allows the mum time to mourn and time to say goodbye to their baby. Wave has now released the body; she appears to be doing alright and I was pleased to see her swimming with her 6-year-old calf Ripple the other day.
When we were out with Dr Mike Bossley looking for Misty’s body we were very excited to see Georgie with a new calf. Georgie’s calf was called Susan. Sadly Susan has also passed away. Unfortunately we have a very high mortality rate for baby dolphins. Our dolphins face many threats including pollution, being hit by boats or caught in fishing line. Susan’s body has been found and hopefully an autopsy will give us some answers as to what caused Susan’s death.
On a happier note another one of our well known dolphins, Sparkle was seen last Friday with a new calf. This calf has been named Gem.
Hopefully more can be done to protect Kalea (born last month) and Gem (born a couple of weeks ago) and the other dolphins that live in the river. If anyone sees people harassing the dolphins or if anyone sees a sick, injured or dead dolphin please report it to the DENR Wildlife Duty Officer.
THE DOLPHINS NEED OUR HELP.
Also, this month I have seen Captain Hook, Ryan, New Moon, Tiffany, Star, Bubbles, Bianca, Hope, Oriana, Kalea,
Marianna, Crystal, Bronny, Tallula, Unhap and Twinkle.
Look out for the next dolphin update on Friday April 6th.dolphins.
Best Wishes
Marianna
