Play Time!

Doug and Kim were out and about last Sunday onboard the "Dancing Dolphin" and heading from the Port Mandurah Canals into the estuary when they spotted a dolphin fishing in the shallow waters of the Creery Wetlands. They headed over to the dolphin who at first was only interested in one thing, breakfast but after finding enough to eat the dolphin decided to have a bit of fun and play infront of the boat as it cruised through the calm inland waters of the Mandurah estuary. With lots of children onboard the boat was filled with squeals and laughter as the dolphin happily played for people to see.

Captain Kat and hostie Kat onboard "Super Cat" also managed to find a playful pod of dolphins for their passengers. This particular pod were only to happy to jump in the wake of the boat and followed us into Sticks Channel at the start of the Peel Inlet, then turned around with us on our journey back to Manjar Bay once again jumping and playing in the wake, to the amazement of some of our overseas visitors.

If you would like to see Mandurah's playful dolphins please contact us at Bouvard Cruises:
Ph: +61 89581 1242
Email: info@bouvardcruises.com.au
Web: www.bouvardcruises.com.au

Did You Know?

3 Dolphin years is the equal to 1 human year when the dolphins are living in the wild. In captivity 2.5 dolphin years is one human year.

Winter Wonderland!

Winter is here! Lucky for us dolphins can be seen in Mandurah all year round, which means you don't have to wait until the sunny weather returns to see some of our playful friends. In the last few weeks the dolphins have been in and out of the estuary every day playing with the boats and looking for food in the shallow waters. Mandurah is a great place for the dolphins as the shallow waters are warmer than the ocean outside and the canals offer a easy way of catching food. The dolphins use the rock walls in the canals to herd the fish into corners making it an easy meal.

We also have a new face in town a dolphin who was seen with another of our favourites Scar was playing on the bow wave of "Dancing Dolphin" this week and one of our skippers Doug came up with the name Tiger. The dolphin has scaring from its dorsal fin to the top of its head in a stripy pattern. The scaring has been caused from sunburn which occurs when the dolphins get caught on sandbars for a period of time and their skin gets burnt and dries out, when the burn has healed it leaves a white scar instead of the usual grey colouring of the dolphin.

Tuesday 22nd June was a fun day onboard "Super Cat" Debbie and Bob Krause from Brisbane saw dolphins at the side of the boat jumping, they played and frolicked in the wake for 5-10 minutes in the main channel heading towards the ocean marina, Bob was wrapped to have seen the dolphins playing with the boat.

If you would like to see Mandurahs playful dolphins please contact Bouvard Cruises:

Ph: +61 89581 1242

Email: info@bouvardcruises.com.au

Web: http://www.bouvardcruises.com.au/

School Holiday Specials Available!

Name the Baby Dolphin Competition

The votes were close between Tide and Alluka...

Alluka was the winner with 158 votes compared to 116 votes for Tide.
Congratulations to Shanae Miller who suggested the name Alluka you are the winner of the Mandurah Stay & Play Package.
There have been a number of new dolphin calves recently so I'm sure one of the Bouvard Cruises crew will name another calf Tide.

Alluka was born on the 3rd of March and first sighted by Ron & Sarah onboard the "SuperCat". Alluka is the calf of a resident unnamed Mandurah Dolphin that has a bend in her dorsal fin. She is often called "Bendy Wendy". Perhaps we will have to call her Wendy from now on as we are frequently seeing her and Alluka playing in the wake of our boats.

Seal Sighting

Today onboard the "Dancing Dolphin" Kim & Alex had an exciting afternoon near the starboard marker near the sticks channel. They sighted a pod of dolphins moving quite quickly upstream and were not interested in interacting with the boat. They had there eye on a school of fish on the point near the sand bar. All of a sudden a seal popped up amongst the dolphins! It popped it's head above the water a few times and then disappeared.
The "Dancing Dolphin" continued back downstream near the New Traffic Bridge when the seal popped his head above the water again. There were a few fisherman on the bridge and the seal seemed to be looking for a free feed from the fisherman.

Last weeks dolphin sightings

Dolphins sighted on most cruises last week.
Last Friday, Sunday & Monday a popular spot for feeding was along the rock wall at the Entrance to the Marina. Up to 5 dolphins were seen on Monday feeding in this spot on large school or herring.

Saturday the 29th Doug & Julie had Nicki and her calf riding the bow of "Dancing Dolphin" from the Entrance to the Port Mandurah Canals to the entrance to the marina.

Monday the 31st Alex, Kat & Bec onboard the "Dancing Dolphin" were joined by 26 passengers from Sydney visiting Perth to compete in the National Disabled Ten Pin Bowling Championships. A pod of 3 dolphins followed the "Dancing Dolphin" riding on the bow from the New Traffic Bridge all the way through the Port Mandurah Canals to the War Memorial.
The water was crystal clear and everyone got some great photos of an unidentified adult dolphin that has quite a few scratches at the back of it's dorsal fin.
Kat managed to get a few photos on her new camera but mainly took photos for the bowling club to take back to Sydney with them.

Did You Know?

Dolphins have to be conscious to breathe, this means that they cannot sleep like you and I do in a deep sleep as they would suffocate. To sleep dolphins sleep half of their brain at a time, we often see the dolphins snoozing on the surface of the water with their blowholes exposed, however it depends on the individual dolphins as to how they sleep. Some choose to swim slowly and surface occassionally for air or rest on the bottom in shallow water and swim to the surface every now and then to breathe or as we most commonly see resting on the surface.