Mandurah's Dolphin Blog: November 2012

Mandurah's Dolphin Blog

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.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Dolphins Active As The Weather Warms Up !

Dolphins were sighted on 23 days during October on our cruises. The 18^th of October saw a large pod of approximately 20 dolphins join us on our 3pm cruise. They had a wonderful time playing in the wake of the boat, putting on a show for our passengers. The start of November has also seen the dolphins very active. 20 minutes of video footage was taken on the 17^th of November of the dolphins and we will hopefully get that up on our Blog and Facebook page shortly. As the weather warms up please be aware of the wild dolphins that frequent our waterways and feel free to share your sightings, photos and videos on our Facebook page!

www.facebook.com/MandurahCruises

About Mandurah's Dolphins

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.