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.
Our guests and crew returned from a recent tour very excited, they had Sonic and Kat the two baby dolphins and their mothers surfing in the wake of Super Cat right next to them! Our crew were just as excited because they got it all on video... and here it is. Shay one of deckies shot the video footage and here is her account of a great day out cruising.
Woohoo!!! I am proud to say the dolphin drought has finally come to an end!
After not seeing any dolphins for a few days, except for yesterday on our 12pm cruise, we finally caught up with a pod consisting of 3 females & 2 very small calves in the estuary.
I got some awesome footage of the little playful dolphins showing off to the passengers. I guess they're letting us know they are back!!
As the dolphins parted ways with SuperCat the passengers settled down we headed back through the canals to our docking jetty. To our surprise we snapped up another pod of dolphins riding alongside us and they bummed yet another free ride in the waves.
1pm 6 dolphins – 2x calves around canal entrance to Rolly Tasker, Happily swimming around catching fish
Saturday 4th June
11am 10 dolphins – 4 under the old bridge coming for a ride with SuperCat all the way out to the mouth of the ocean. Large pod of 4 dolphins & 2 calves cruising through the estuary near Soldier's Cove
2pm 12 dolphins – Coming back from the wetlands are towards the New Bridge 12 dolphins playing on either side of Dancing Dolphin even at the bow!
Sunday 4th June
1pm 4 dolphins – feeding in MandjarBay
Monday 6th June
11am 4 dolphins – Swimming in on port side through estuary
1pm 6 dolphins – 4 dolphins rode SuperCats wake from MandjarBay to the Marina, 2 more caught up and joined in
3pm 2 dolphins – Mother and Calf showing off in the Estuary
Wednesday 8th June
1pm 8 dolphins – pod of 8 swimming from the inlet through to the NewBridge
Thursday 10th June
11am 4 dolphins – Pod of 4 spotted playing hide and seek on our bow, whilst also riding waves created by SuperCat
Friday 11th June
10am 4 Dolphins – First thing in the morning we saw 2 dolphins in the marina as we left SuperCats pen then another 2 in the estuary swimming in our wake
Kat & Myself departed from the jetty once again on our 1.5hr luncheon cruise...
Accompanied by 26 passengers!
The minute we left the jetty four of hour very friendly dolphins decided to tag along.
They were jumping & splashing & having a really good play around. All our passengers were super stoked. I captured once again some awesom footage!
Then 2 or more dolphins joined in too! Now a pod of 6 dolphins riding either sides of our waves it was a wickid sight to see!!!
As we approached the mouth of the ocean it was time to say goodbye to our little dolphins friends as they continued out to the ocean & we continued on our cruise through the canals.
Little did we know we were going to spot another pod of dolphins in the estuary making our way back to Mandjar Bay. Going underneath the Mandurah Bypass Bridge, Nikki & her playful calf joined us to ride in the wake! putting on a small show before leaving us as we heading back through the canals..
Don't let the fact that it's winter stop you from coming aboard our vessels folks,
in fact these dark clouds are not only just bringing in rain, it bringing in our dolphin friends too!
On our 1.5hr luncheon cruise Ron created a massive wake too good for our dolphins too turn down! We managed to get them alongside SuperCat to and from Boundary Island.... then all the way back to the new Bypass Bridge. I was lucky enough to get some awesome snapshots!
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.
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