7th Sept 2015- One female seen with new tattoo like marks/lesions on her body as well as a circular marking on tip of her dorsal left side.
Male freezebrand 14 also has some new tattoo like skin markings.
The 2015 calf with a lighter coloured band around the top of its head possibly a female. 2 adult females looking quite pregnant seen today.
Late August/ early September 2015 - Mandurah Cruises have been seeing a tiny newborn in town waters this is likely the 10th calf for the year!
20 September 2015 - Residents overlooking the cut (ocean side of bridge) have noticed they arent seeing the dolphin pods there this month , whereas they normally see them almost daily. This may be related to september very low tides and fish movements, more out to the ocean. I did see three of the regulars but they were scattered along the length of the cut the next day. Day after we saw a large pod feeding in the ocean just outside the cut entrance. Mid november they still arent seen like they used to be.
25 September 2015 - Several dolphins now have various new skin markings/lesions including dark spots, small white circular raised lumps, and various tattoo like skin lesions/markings, including one of the most recent mothers. See photo -> This however completely cleared up by late 2015.
8 October 2015 - Gnawra and lucy look larger in belly area to me could they be pregnant again?
three of the 2013 mums hanging out together with their calves today
9 October 2015 - A 3.1m shark unknown species was sighted 70m offshore 200m north of The Cut
12th october Saw squeaky halfway down harvey estuary - considering hes been rescued
from black lake previously which is past lake goegrup its clear these dolphins get around!
1 Nov 2015 - Lucy's 2013 calf has left her side and its possible she will calve again in coming season
File note : Pearl in james report appears to be Nickys older calf ( known to locals
as Christmas as she was born at christmas time). Since james study she stranded again and her dorsal fin has changed significantly. Her dorsal now leans significantly to the right and she now also has a large V shaped nick in the top of her fin from 2015.
Ruby and Tooth are now believed to be males who have an strong allience with eachother. They have been seen with Crook a lot ( likely allience partner), and recently also seen with trouble ( rice) .
28 Nov 2015 - Dolphin ( now called Floppy) reported at the cut oceanside with severely damaged dorsal fin. From a photo posted online we can see it was injured sometime before early october. Thanks to tracey for reporting it and taking photos. Thanks also to craig for photos on sunday 29th.
17 December 2015 - Lone subadult dolphin ( Tom) swimming in same small area upriver past Stakehill bridge ( map HERE) since 17th December to at least the 5th January 2016 ( 20 days). Thanks tom for reporting it! Also many thanks to barry and robert for kayaking the area the following day and taking photos. This dolphin was seen in the peel inlet prior on 15th december and so likely travelled up on 16th ( max tide that night .75m mandurah bridge )
This dolphin has now been seen safely back in the serpentine river and inlet.
22 December 2015 - 3.1m unknown species shark reported outside dawesville channel
New long term detailed research into our dolphins by Murdoch University has begun! Make sure you follow it by clicking HERE
20 Jan 2016 - First newborn for 2016 -Hayley has a new calf ! As she lost her last 9 month old male calf on 26 Nov 2014 after stranding incident this birth is particularly special :) ( Calf later named comet)
28 Jan 2016 - Lindy, Squarecuts 2015 female calf stranded alone in extreme upper reaches of serpentine river today on a very shallow sandbar. Her mother and her and a few other dolphins had been spending days up there recently chasing fish however her mum was now nowhere to be found. After being helped she later stranded again whilst swimming across goegrup lake where the exit and entrances are very shallow. Many thanks to everyone who helped this little dolphin on each occasion to continue to safer water including three caring young lads. We hope you make it Lindy! Please call 0407 090 284 if you see Lindy who is a easily recognisable small calf with obvious fishing line damage to both sides of her dorsal ( photo below). You should also call the wildcare hotline on 9 474 9055 if you see any dolphin in distress stranded or deceased at any time.
2 Feb 2016 - Amazing news!! The Mandurah Dolphin Research Team found Lindy back together with her mum Squarecut today! in the peel inlet near south yunderup. To fully understand how amazing this is and the hows and whys of behind the scenes of the rescue efforts you would need to know the whole story of this pairs adventures travelling very high up in serpentine river system since christmas.... but lets just say its AMAZING!!
Special thanks to every single person who helped this little dolphin find her way back to mum.
4 Feb 2016- Mandurah Cruises saw a second newborn calf in our waters today! The new mum is Hatrick :) and her calf has been named Halo.
Gnawra is also confirmed heavily pregnant. She had her last calf, a female, in 2013. Are lucy and diver pregnant as well?
9 Feb 2016- Christmas has quickly grown into a very large dolphin. She looks pretty large in the belly well fed or pregnant? :)
mothers and calves page being updated.
8 March 2016 - Bowie has a new calf named Ziggy :) Gnawra still pregnant!
11 March 2016 - Exciting news! Mandurah cruises reported seeing Gnawra with her tiny newborn calf today which they have called Nugget. As Gnawra was seen still pregnant on wednesday this would make the newborn less than 2 days old when first seen. As we now have 4 newborns in our waters please slow down and give the mums and newborns some extra space
Assumptions ( not proven) - Tom is one of Squarecuts previous offspring. Ash calf of coal likely male. Halo calf of hatrick may be male. Zetta is pregnant
26 March 2016 - Christmas was seen with her first newborn today ( named Easter) . They were seen again with easter's grandma Nikki on 29th.
29th March 2016- Diver was seen with newborn in harvey estuary today! Her new calf has been named Scuba who might be female. This is the 6th calf born so far in 2016.
Mowgli appears pregnant as well :) Karenina calf of Anna appears to be female. She has a more browner colour to her 2nd half.
30th March 2016 - The Mandurah Dolphin Research team have already identified nearly 200 individual dolphins in a combined area encompassing coastal waters north ( to point peron) and south of mandurah ( towards preston beach) and our inland waters! See map here
2 April 2016 - Mowgli and Lucy still pregnant. 7th same!
7 April 2016 - Saw few months old calf still with fetal lines visible in the cut today - likely one of the coastal newborns :)
Autumn ( Topnotchs calf) appears to be male, Halo ( Hatricks calf) is male and Melody small calf to Ariel is female. Tiana also female
12 April 2016 - Large healthy looking adult dolphin stranded onshore near island point harvey estuary where waters are extremely shallow.
Many thanks to the Watts family for rescuing the newly named "Brendon". Brendon was seen the next day with his male allience mates
considerable distance away in the peel inlet following a female, looking fine.
13 April 2016 - New calf to Zetta ( named Lita) seen in in our waters! so now there are 7 inland calves plus 8th seen in the dawesville cut which may be more coastal going
19 April 2016 - Lucy has given birth to her new calf :) 8 inland new calves now plus one in the cut.
Mowgli is still pregnant but likely due soon and there is a small chance of another adult in the inlet also being pregnant!
23rd April 2016 - Mowgli still pregnant 23rd. Lucys calf has been named Luna
Public report 5m white shark sighted 21:30hrs 23/04, Dawesville Channel, Mandurah 1km offshore Reported 07:40hrs 24/04
25th April 2016 - Female adult dolphin ( with small 2016 calf) seen in the cut with wounds front and behind dorsal and missing the tip of its dorsal as well. Calf alongside was fine. Wounds appear to be shark bites. She is expected to recover from these injuries and has been named Joy.
The salmon run has been in full swing recently including the cut and also seen once right in town alonside western foreshore.
27 April 2016 - Mowgli has now given birth to her new calf named Cathy. Another dolphin appears pregnant believed to be Hakuna.
All of the 2016 calves look very healthy and well :)
3 May 2016 - Wendy's has had a new calf! We have named it Pan
6 May 2016 - Dear little 3 month old male Halo everyones favourite was sadly seen entangled with thick rope and line late friday night by mandurah cruises. A rescue plan was formulated - an almost impossible task to unentangle such a small fast moving animal with a protective mum.
Happily on Tuesday 10th May with huge assistance from Doug Coughran of DPaw, mandurah dolphin rescue volunteers and other caring
individuals from mandurah cruises and mandurah dpaw the ropes were successfully cut from halos body! Thankyou everyone who assisted or called in or helped in any way to make sure our little Halo was ok.
10 May 2016 - Nickys calf Surprise is a boy.
The female mother dolphin of 25th april above ( Joy) was seen with braided cord wrapped around her dorsal, luckily she has managed to escape it herself. Please pick up any fishing line, rope or rubbish you see so it doesnt affect our dolphins!
31st May 2016 - @SLSWA: Public report 3.5m white shark sighted 07:58hrs 31/05, Pyramids Beach, Mandurah 1.8km offshore.
Bronze whaler sighted by public blue bay 9th June 2016.
Surprise ( Nickys 2015 calf) is believed male. As well we believe Autumn, Giggles, Tigger, Bottle, Halo, Scarry, Linkin, Kidbilly Pirjo and Matata are all males. Krill Melody Spot and karenina are female.
The mandurah dolphin research team have seen approx 20 newborns in combined inland and ocean waters off south and north of mandurah this year!! As virtually nothing is known about the dolphins off our coast their research is going to be exciting to follow!
1 July 2016 - Sad news today. Caboose an adult coastal female was unfortunately found dead in Dawesville cut canal today. She was very thin.
Thanks to all who rang in, DPAW and the murdoch dolphin research team who have the body and samples for testing. We had caboose under observation after seeing her obviously thin a week ago but had no further sightings. At that time she was still seen actively feeding.
8 July 2016 - Scar is looking quite big ( possibly pregnant)
We believe Boris is female and little scuba nugget and comet are female as well.
1 August 2016 - Female calf karenina seen with small shark bite on her back in front of dorsal. This has swiftly healed over next few weeks.
18 October 2016 - We say a sad farewell to female adult Hakuna found deceased today. Hakuna was one of the famous five who spend a lot of time in Serpentine River. We thank the Murdoch researchers and Murdoch cetacean team for arranging for Hakuna's necropsy.
18 October 2016 - Goose ( the young calf of Caboose who died earlier in the year) is doing well and karenina is almost fully healed from her small shark bite. You can follow the amazing story of how Goose has found protection with Laika and Sputnick here
7 November 2016 - Sadly much loved Easter a young female calf 1.65m long was found deceased in the shallows of wannanup today thankyou Ingrid for reporting. She was too decomposed for necropsy unfortunately. Measurements and samples were taken for investigation by Murdoch Mandurah Dolphin Research Team. Thankyou to the team to attending and confirming via markings the calf was Easter. Her mother Christmas has been seen since for several days with males Frank Bitts Hook and others in Harvey Estuary. It was her first calf. We hope she may become pregnant again.
Pregnancy Watch Malika Scar Squarecut and Sea are all looking very large - shall we see new calves to these females in 2017 :)
24 Nov 2016 - Newborn! Mandurah dolphin research team discovered coastal/dawesville cut dolphin Brandon ( miss brandon!) has had a newborn male calf which has been named Hiccup.
15 December 2016 - Today Kristen revealed he is a male. Sadly we havent seen squeaky since 18th October when he was with hakuna.
9 Jan 2017 - Kristen a young male about 5yrs old was unable to move from a small pool area at Herron Point due to sandbars forming all around.
He had already been there for several days with very low tides and severely hot temperatures forecast for rest of the week.
Many thanks to all who called it in and to all who helped! Kristen was moved by sling back to deeper safer harvey estuary.
16 and 17 January 2017 - A juvenile 3.1m false killer whale was found floundering in the surf break and reef north of falcon beach. There was a rapid response by members of the public, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Fisheries Department, Seabird Rescue, Mandurah Dolphin Rescue volunteers, Orrca, and others to help the animal. The heavy surf along the entire coast that day and the reefline along that beach prevented returning the animal to the ocean directly and assistance by boat there to take it offshore was impossible. Therefore it had to be taken via road to an inshore boat ramp initially to then try and take it offshore. The animal was found the following day restranded and again the same response along with the Perth Zoo vet responded quickly. The animal was taken as far offshore as possible into its natural environment though efforts were extremely hampered by very rough sea conditions. We hope the rescue was successful and thankyou to everyone who helped it! Lessons were learned for future rescues.
18 January 2017 and earlier that week- Jac reseen with fairly deep horizontal cut on her left side between dorsal and tail which appears to be healing. Speculation is it may have been caused by a boat propellor. Thanks to Murdoch dolphin research team and mandurah cruises staff.
13 February 2017 - Coastal female WallE is a new mum again :) we believe she may have lost her previous calf Eve to a shark so this is great news
This is the 2nd coastal calf seen in our mandurah waters ( first was hiccup above). The calf has been named Kirby ( thanks guys)
Kirby was born sometime between 2nd and 13th February.
Elderly male inland resident Zero one ( 01 ) was seen looking unwell last week but seems to have recovered now
Sea is heavily pregnant.
14 February 2017- Today we sadly were told of a dead calf floating in the estuary. Thankyou to Robert and Barry. We found it was Lindy (2 yr old) who stranded when 10 months old on 28 Jan 2016 see above. Lindys body was retrieved but unfortunately was too decomposed for a meaningful necropsy. As much information as possible over 6 hours was collected from her body including blubber levels which were very thin ( she was visibly skinny).
We saw her mum Squarecut last week ( 6/2) with no lindy and obviously very pregnant due soon. Lindy may have been weaned earlier than normal or just ventured off for life on her own early, unsucessfully. Samples will be analysed by Murdoch university for health assessment. Normally calves stay close to their mothers for 3 years or more. In this case Squarecut had only a 2 year interval between pregnancies.
25 February 2017 - The Mandurah Dolphin Research Team saw a brand new calf off dawesville today! Described as very small and likely only recently born
On a sadder note probably elder coastal male Vern looks very thin.
1 March 2017 - Happy news we have a new inland waters dolphin baby seen by Natalie from Mandurah Cruises today. Calf is only a few days old at the most. The new mum is Malika one of our breeding adult females.
16 March 2017 - A second inland newborn was seen today now named Breeze born to mum Sea. Breeze was seen playing with our other newborn Splash!
20 March 2017 - Today we saw that 21 has had a new calf! There is now at least three newborns in the estuary system. Her new calf has been named Nikaila
28 March 2017 - Welcome to our 4th inland newborn seen today with mum Scar!. Scar was last seen still pregnant 4 days earlier.
8 April 2017 - (Edited for full story) We sincerely thank Andrew O'Connor for finding a tiny 1.4m male calf alone in the vast shallows at the back of the inlet. A 24 hr search and rescue mission to try and find its mum was allowed by DBCA and then undertaken by volunteers. Eventually volunteers determined who the mother was and located her (Squarecut) within the last few hours given. However sadly by then a changed decision to euthanise the calf within the 24 hrs previously granted had been made by DBCA and couldn't be overturned despite many requests by volunteers ). Although we had not seen Squarecut's neonate prior to this weekend due to her being a river going dolphin, during the searching it became clear to us she had had her calf and the stranded calf was hers. This proved completely correct.
During the search we did find all the other known 2017 mothers with their calves confirming the first 4 calves are still happy and well.
A necropsy was undertaken by Murdoch University. Special thanks to Andrew, Matt, DPAW, Murdoch Dolphin Research Team and family members, Nat, Robyn, Mandurah Cruises and crew, Orrca, Murdoch University, Nahiid, Lars, John, Mandurah volunteers dolphin rescuers and all who helped in anyway! We really appreciate it. We are all deeply saddened at such a tragic loss. Many debriefs and discussions are being held since this sad event as to what can be done next time. It has also made us realise we need to crowdfund for specialised equipment as it was clear so many people cared. We are sorry little one x
16 April 2017 - Willow seen acting strangely at the end of Syrenka Turn canal. Thanks to canal residents keeping a sharp eye out it appears her? podmates had gone through the bridge tunnels there to the next canal but willow did not seem to want to and keep looking at the bridge area. An anxious wait and much calling by her later, willows pod member reappeared from the other side, swam back to willows side and they both happily went up canal in the other direction instead! It is known some dolphins are more tentative about entering smaller spaces than others. Willow is a young adult dolphin possibly female.
May/June 2017 - Goose seen with fishing line cutting through end of left tail fluke .
Nugget sadly is clearly orphaned but doing ok on her own. Her mother Gnawra has not been seen for some time.
26 June 2017 - Elly, an adult dolphin seen in the cut with very obvious shark attack wounds. Clearly a very lucky escape from a large shark. Elly was seeing recovering in further weeks initially not venturing back into the ocean.
19 Sept 2017 - Elliot seen at dawesville with significant shark bite injury. Dolphins possess amazing abiliity to heal and we hope he will heal
9 October 2017 - Elliot already healing rapidly. He is choosing to not go to the ocean while he rests and recovers. Anna looks heavily pregnant.
10 October 2017 - Mandurah dolphin research project team saw ocean dolphin "Ale" with a very large shark bite wound today ( probably from white shark)
14 October 2017 - Sadly two dead dolphins Scar and her 7 month old male calf Speckle ( very decomposed) were reported past Yalbanbernup pool in the upper reaches of Serpentine River. Scar was likely a very old dolphin as her teeth were almost completely worn down. She was also very large @2.65m
We would greatly appreciate anyone who does kayak to consider kayaking the upper reaches of the Serpentine from time to time if possible. This would greatly help keep an eye on the dolphins who do visit after the plentiful fish. Especially Goegrup lake & importantly from Woodlands retreat carpark right up to 2nd pool. Please report any sightings to the Wildcare Hotline 9 474 9055.
Map here http://members.iinet.net.au/~rokhor/canoe/urbpadserpup.html
9 Dec 2017 - Squarecut heavily pregnant. Also likely pregnant are Christmas and Nikky. Prince continues to be herded by males.
12 Dec 2017 - Sadly a very decomposed 1.93m subadult dolphin's body has been found at the bottom of Goegrup Lake
For 2018 dolphin happenings click here for page 4
IF YOU GET A CLEAR PHOTOGRAPH OF A DOLPHIN WITH ANY WOUNDS, FISHING LINE ENTANGLEMENT, OR A NEW CALF - PLEASE EMAIL HERE