A boat full of tourists was blown away by the “rare” moment a dolphin calf, likely only a few weeks old, swam alongside them in Aussie waters this week.
The group were touring with a wild dolphin swimming charter boat in Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne and while it was expected they’d see dolphins, seeing one so young is exceptionally special, the tour guide told Yahoo News.
“The tourists went crazy. It’s honestly some of the most captivating wildlife moments… you’ve got this little baby zipping around among the animals, just having fun — it’s just a pinch me moment,” James Murphy, owner of Sea All Dolphins Swims said. “We just took the boat out of gear. The animals came across, and the baby had zoomies and was just buzzing around the boat.”
Why are dolphin calf sightings like this so rare?
There are strict wildlife regulations for these types of tours to ensure tourism isn’t encroaching on the marine animals and in this instance, the crew were legally obliged to cut the power of the boat and allow the dolphins to move on. This means tourists can usually catch a glimpse of a calf, but they are usually far away. However, in this instance, they got up close and personal, only a few metres away from the calf happily swimming in the water.
“We interact with about 90 animals in the southern parts of Port Phillip Bay and on that day there was about 40 plus dolphins,” James said. “When you’d got a pod like that, often what happens is it splits so you have the mums and younger ones in one direction and the other ones will come over… that’s what we want… we really don’t want to interact with the babies. But this one came to us and it was pretty cool.”
Over 40 dolphins were near the boat when the calf was sighted this week. Source: Instagram/SeaAllDolphinsSwims
The crew recently spotted another small calf that “must have only been like a day old”. “It was so small it didn’t know how to dolphin yet,” he laughed.
James explained there’s up to 10 calves born every week in the pod and having this close interaction to one has been one of his favourite moments in the nine seasons he has been a tour guide.
“It was absolutely incredible,” he said.
Incredible marine wildlife encounters across Australia
There has been no shortage of amazing marine life sights in the country recently, with a boat full of tourists similarly getting up close and personal with a humpback whale in Sydney after the curious mammal spy-hopped right beside their boat. This is when whales lift their heads out of the water to take a look around, and the whale in question did it centimetres away from a boat in August.
A woman thought she had spotted a rare pink dolphin in Byron Bay, however, she later learned it was the underside of one of two dolphins mating.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.