One of the dolphins waiting to be fed.
Although we (well Mrs. Harding) have been very persistent , it appears a trip to the stromatolites is just not going to happen for us. In fact we can’t even get off the resort and into town. There are no taxis, no bus, no shuttle! If we could make it to town, we could visit the Shark Bay Discovery Centre. But there are some excellent displays here and a great menu of videos about the area that play in the theatre. We watched one this morning about the reasons this area is listed as a World Heritage area. There was some great video of the wildlife, the stromatolites and the landscapes. One of the reasons we are having trouble getting to the stromatolites is that they are 100 kilometers away on the road into Shark Bay. Everyone drives by them on the way in, and apparently few people fly.
.We had a delightful morning watching the wild dolphins come in to be fed. They have been coming here for over 40 years. It used to be people could just buy buckets of fish and go out and feed the dolphins. Eventually that caused a problem. The mother dolphins would stay at the beach eating fish all day and neglect their babies. There was a 99% mortality rate among the babies. Now it is carefully controlled. Nobody is allowed to touch the dolphins, and only 5 females are fed. They can only be fed in the morning and each one can only have around a kilo of fish each day. Lots of dolphins come up including babies, but none of them expect to be fed. They are often seen the rest of the day frolicking in the bay throughout the day. The way they tell the dolphins apart is by their fins. They generally have little nicks and indentations in their fins.
The beach here is very different from most beaches we have been to. For one thing it is virtually deserted. Beaches at home are generally full of condos. There are not palm trees here. There is red dirt, low green shrubs, Spinifex, shells, sand and brilliant blue water. It is very lovely, but in a stark kind of way.
And now, a small moment from Mrs. Morris.
Our schedule for the last few weeks has been to awaken with the sun to great whatever adventure lie before us. We have had many a great adventure and this morning’s was to see and possibly feed the dolphins.
I had some misgivings about this activity after watching a documentary about the Japanese capturing dolphins to sell to places like Sea World and then slaughtering those that were left. Not knowing if the dolphins here were kept in a fenced area and used for show was somewhat troubling.
To my surprise we learned that they only feed about 5 of the dolphins that come in every morning and what they give them is merely a snack compared to what they need to survive. The dolphins have been coming to Shark Bay for 35-40 years and have not been touched my humans in over 10 years. The volunteers are very aware of the names and personalities of each of the dolphins and will cut the feeding time down if they notice a calf that needs to nurse, as the mothers only nurse in deeper water.
As we stood about shin deep in the water, these magnificent creatures would swim calmly back and forth inspecting our ankles or just lie still and take a snooze. The younger male dolphins would frolic and wrestle in the deeper water. It was truly amazing to be standing that close to wild dolphins and both human and dolphin be together.. Quite comforting to know that these dolphins were free to live in nature the way they were meant to live.
The dolphins come in to feed 3 times in the morning and though Mrs. Harding tried each time, neither of were chosen to feed the dolphins. As we watched others feed them it was fascinating to see how gently the dolphins took the fish. We have tomorrow morning and I am sure we will give it a go. They are amazing creatures to watch, so if we don’t get a chance all is not lost. Cheers!
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