Bouvard Cruises is happy to introduce you to the official "Mandurah's Dolphin Blog" where we will share with you all of the sightings and encounters we have on our cruises with Mandurah's beautiful wild dolphins. You will find photo's, movies and information on the many dolphin encounters we have on our cruises in and around Mandurah and hope that this information helps raise awareness of Mandurah's wild dolphins. You too can see Mandurah's dolphins, they live just 1 hour south of Perth in Western Australia.
Wow! What an amazing couple of days for dolphin's in Mandurah onboard with Bouvard Cruises. Simon and Kat the crew onboard "Super Cat" have been lucky to introduce our passengers to two of our local pods of dolphins.
The 3pm cruise on Monday had a pod of 8 dolphins splashing, twirling and playing in the boats wake. The dolphins were turning over and swimming belly up showing off to passengers onboard. Tuesday was another great day for dolphins, Nikky and her pod of about 6 dolphins came over to "Super Cat" in the Mandurah Estuary to say hello on the 1pm cruise. We soon saw that they were in a particulary playful mood so we challenged them to what we call a "run" which is when we speed the boat up and the dolphins often chase the boat and play in its wake, and we were not dissapointed. The dolphins played in the wake jumping and twirling, showing off as passengers watched closely with cameras ready. They put on a great show jumping right up out of the water and splashing everyone with water.
"Dancing Dolphin" hasn't missed out on their share of the dolphins either. Nikky and the pod also spent some time with the "Dancing Dolphin" this time playing on the bow wave. Kim and Coel the crew onboard made sure everyone got a good look at the pod spending time with them in the estuary both crew and passengers absolutely loved it and got some good photos aswell.
If you would like to see Mandurah's Dolphins please contact us:
The Mandurah dolphins have been pretty busy over the Christmas season mating, feeding in the shallows, throwing fish but also finding time to play with seaweed and with our vessels "Dancing Dolphin" and "Super Cat".
Nikky and her calf who is now one year old have been sighted quite often in the last few weeks, Nikky is teaching her calf how to survive once the calf leaves her side. This week they were seen in Manjar Bay rounding up school's of mullet in the shallow waters. Nikky found herself getting stuck on the sandbank due to the low tides but has learnt how to get herself off again over the years. Many dolphins get caught on sandbanks chasing fish some result in getting sunburnt which heals quickly but leaves a white scar on the dolphin. We are expecting that Nikky pregnant again as she was seen mating with a large male dolphin the gestation period for a dolphin is 12 months.
Another of our favourite dolphins was seen this week "White Spot" and a pod of mostly male dolphins were out in the estuary swimming on the bow wave of the "Dancing Dolphin" White Spot as his name would suggest has a white spot on his head just before his dorsal fin, he is a keen jumper and will usually play with the boats. He also likes to show off a little jumping right next to the boat and wetting passengers onboard.
From the crew at Bouvard Cruises we hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and have a happy and safe New Year and would love to see you on one of our cruises to meet our wonderful bottlenosed dolphins.
If you would like to see Mandurah's dolphin's please contact us:
Another great day for dolphin's has been and gone in sunny Mandurah. With both boats the "Dancing Dolphin" and the "Super Cat" in the Bouvard Cruises fleet sighting dolphin's througout the day. Two pods of 6 six dolphin's travelled through the canals and estuary today and both pods were very playful not only towards each other but with the boats as well, with a bit of mating also happening around luch time.
"Dancing Dolphin" followed one of the pods in the Mandurah estuary near the bird sanctuary and watched as they played with sea weed, while "Super Cat" enjoyed the playful dolphin's on the 3pm cruise as they followed the boat, jumped and played in its wake creating excitment for both crew and passengers and some great photo opportunities, then slowly continued out to the Indian Ocean.
If you would like to see Mandurah's Dolphin's please contact us:
Another "Amazing" clip of Mandurah's dolphin playing in the wake of Bouvard Cruise's ferry "Super Cat". There were about 6 dolphins in the pod swapping from one side of the ferry to the other. The Mandurah dolphins seem to really like the wake that the "Super Cat" puts off because when ever they are around they always come over and play.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
It has been another exciting week this week for dolphin's in Mandurah. Coel and the Crew onboard "Dancing Dolphin" sighted up to 20 dolphin's near the War Memorial playing around the boat and feeding in the shallow water.
While out in the Mandurah Estuary near the bird sanctuary six dolphin's joined "Super Cat" on a cruise and were surfing in the wake of the boat. Nikky and her calf were also seen feeding in the shallow water along Fairbridge Bank.
If you would like to see Mandurah Dolphin's please contact us: Phone: +61 8 9581 1242 Email: info@bouvardcruises.com.au
A warm, sunny day in Mandurah. Kat & Doug on board the "SuperCat" sighted Nikky and her calf near the entrance to Mariners Cove. They were enjoying the start of the warm weather and seen playing with seaweed. Later in the day they were also seen feeding in Manjar Bay possibly on small mullet. Another 6 dolphins were later sighted at the entrance to the Mandurah Ocean Marina heading upstream while feeding.
Did you know - Manjar Bay comes from the meaning "meeting place" by the local aboriginals the Noongar tribe. "Kwillana" meaning dolphin.
Thursday 12 th November was an exciting day onboard the "Dancing Dolphin" with the crew Coel & Kat.
10:40 am
A pod of 4 dolphins believed to be 3 adults & 1 calf were seen feeding in the shallow waters at Stingray Point. The fish were jumping as the dolphin were slapping the water with there tails stunning the fish.
11:45 am
A seal was sighted at the Mandurah Estuary Bridge. Seal's are not common in the Mandurah waterways, however every now and then some lucky passengers will sight them.
Did you know that the long whiskers on a seal help them detect underwater vibrations and that seals have more blood for it's body size than any other land animal.
2:10 pm
2 dolphins were back at Stingray Point feeding, possible on small mullet.
Here is our latest movie of Mandurah's playful wild dolphins having fun on the bow wave of our ferry. Watch for the dolphin near the end of the movie with the white scar at the base of it's dorsal fin. The scar is from sunburn caused when the dolphin was stranded a while ago and was luckily rescued.
If you would like to see Mandurah Dolphin's please contact us:
This week has been pretty exciting with our local Bottlenosed Dolphin's. We have seen them through out the week playing with seaweed, feeding in the shallow water, mating and even jumping in the wake of our boats. Ron and Kat the crew onboard "Super Cat" on Friday and the passengers onboard the 3pm cruise were particulary lucky as we found a pod of about 10 dolphins in the Mandurah Estuary near the Estuary Bridge where they were jumping in the wake of our boat the "Super Cat". "Dancing Dolphin" also saw dolphin's during the week feeding and playing in the shallow water in the estuary.
Today Ron our skipper onboard "Super Cat" saw two dolphins in the marina, one of them was Nikky our local female dolphin. We know it was Nikky because she has the top part of her dorsal fin missing. Maybe she was hanging out in the marina, heading in to Dolphin Quay to get some early Christmas shopping done.
Mandurah has a healthy population of Bottle Nose Dolphins (tusiops truncatus) that is estimated to number up to 75 individuals, depending on the time of year. The number increases around mating times when males come in and join the pods. The pods of dolphins average around 10-15 and have sometimes been seen to be as large as 25 down to solitary dolphins or smaller family groups of 3-4.
Their average length is about 3 metres, with calves being about 1 metre long at birth. We normally see baby dolphins appear between December and April. Mandurah's wild dolphins are medium grey in colour with light flanks and pale bellies. They can live up to 30 years and can swim in short bursts up to 40km/h and they love to play in our ferries bow waves and wash. As a matter of fact dolphins are the only other mammals apart from humans that continue to play well into their adult life. And Mandurah's wild dolphins are very playful!
Thanks to Sally Kirby for some of this information.
Wow! What an amazing couple of days for dolphin's in Mandurah onboard with Bouvard Cruises. Simon and Kat the crew onboard "Super Cat" have been lucky to introduce our passengers to two of our local pods of dolphins.
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