Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a great Easter!
We had a great start to April. Some of the ADS Volunteers and their friends spent a day on board the Kangaroo Island Marine Adventure motor boat. This was a great opportunity for us to see some of our Port River Dolphins cousins, the Common Dolphins that inhabit the waters of Backstairs Passage between Cape Jervois and Kangaroo Island.
There are two main species of dolphins found in SA waters; Bottlenose dolphins, that live in the Port River and generally live closer to shore and Common Dolphins which are generally found in the deeper waters. Common Dolphins are smaller and much faster than Bottlenose Dolphins. They are dark grey on top, have yellow/cream hourglass patterns on their flanks and white bellies.
They are often in large pods and will regularly leap over towards boats. During the trip we were also lucky to see some of the Kangaroo Island Bottlenose Dolphins, Seals and numerous Sea Birds including Pacific Gulls, Gannets, Osprey and Cormorants.
A big thank you to Sue Walsh for organising the day, Andrew Neighbour and Nina Maurovic for taking us on such a great adventure and to everyone that came along and made the day so much fun.
On the 13th April ADS Volunteer Donna-Louise Martin snapped this great photo of a two metre shark in the Inner Port River. It is believed to be a Blue Shark. We know that there are sharks in the river but to have one this size so far up the river was very unusual.
Our local dolphins seem to have formed a small mum’s and bub’s group. Harmony and her calf MJ are spending a large amount of time with Proppy and her new calf. We have seen the four of them together on numerous occasions. The calves are still learning their swimming techniques and it is important that people out on the water remember to stay at least 150m away from mother and baby dolphins.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) would like people who are adopting a dolphin through the WDC or who adopt a dolphin in the next month to suggest names for both Proppy’s and Scarlett’s new calves. Adopting a dolphin helps support the incredible work that Mike Bossley and the WDC do and is a great way to help our amazing Port River dolphins. To adopt a Port River dolphin please email: info.au@whales.org
There has been plenty of action and plenty of play. The dolphins appear to be having loads of fun bow riding (surfing) in front of the Dolphin Explorer. Lunar and his sister Ali have been some of the main surfers and are always great fun to watch.
Other dolphins we have seen over the last month include Wave, Ripple, Marianna, Bubbles, Zoom, Unhap, Oriana, Ryan, New Moon, Ollie, Dinah, Sue, Bird, Bianca, Doc, Sophie, Sharpie, Tiffany, Summer, Sparkle, Gem, Twinkle, Crystal, Hope, Tallula, Boss, Morgan and Star.
I hope you all have a great month. Look out for next months Dolphin Diary on Friday 6th June 2014. Best Wishes Marianna