Day 61 – Wed, 8 Sep at Monkey Mia

Today was just a look around Monkey Mia as I was staying a 2nd night in the campsite. We had a little rain overnight, well you couldn’t actually call it rain as it only lasted about 30 seconds at 4am. But then again it was the first I had been in since leaving the E coast near Cairns. I think I have been very lucky in that respect.

So this morning I headed down to the beach to take in the dolphins and their interaction with us land mammals. Access to the dolphins is not what you expect. I guess I have seen on TV the free access and the dolphins being handled and touched. Well it is a lot more controlled with handling and touching restricted.

WA DEC (Department of Environment & Conservation) control the access and it is really limited in an attempt to protect the animals (both human & dolphins) from each other. The dolphins can become stressed and ill from human contact (even get the common cold). Humans can be injured from impact and also from bites. DEC is trying to make it as natural as possible for the animals, on the animals terms, but still giving us the opportunity to have this rather unique experience.

So access is firstly standing in the water, up to about knee deep, and watching them swim by very close whilst the DEC people give a spiel about all things related to the group. They then feed only about 5 of the females (if they arrive). They only feed the same five and only about 1.5kg of fish each across the 3 morning feeds. This is so the dolphins do not become dependent. At this time a person is selected from the crowd and gets the chance to hold a fish whilst the dolphin takes it from them. Pretty cool.

At the first feeding there was only one female and her calf. There was quite a crowd at this feeding and the female received 3 fish. The crowd thinned out somewhat for the second feeding and more dolphins turned up. About 10 in all but only three females who DEC staff feed. The rest were calves of the females. The 3rd feeding was similar.

So this interaction was really nice, just a little more controlled and restricted then what I had thought. However this is understandable given the number of people present at the first feeding, and hearing some of the stories of less controlled practices of the past.

The remainder of the day was just hanging out and taking a few walks. I endeavoured to get onto a 4WD tour into the Cape Peron NP for tomorrow without any success. I’ll have to think of alternatives and see what eventuates.

Overall, an interesting day. The weather has been fairly variable throughout the day, not warm enough to encourage me into the water, but then again nice to have a cooler switched off day. I guess back to some riding again tomorrow.