Management of the Monkey Mia Dolphins
The Monkey Mia experience has survived for more than four decades because of careful supervision of the human-dolphin interaction, control of dolphin feeding and protection of the dolphin’s habitat. The Western Australian Department of Conservation and Environment (DEC) incorporates the latest scientific research findings to safeguard the dolphins’ health, welfare and habitat while maintaining sustainable dolphin-focused tourism. Read more about dolphin research
here.
Management of the human-dolphin interaction
People love dolphins, but there is a risk they may be loved to death. Uncontrolled wildlife encounters can be detrimental to the health, welfare and long-term survival of the animals. The DEC manages the Monkey Mia dolphin experience by
Regulating dolphin feeding
The tradition of fishers sharing their catch with dolphins may have been acceptable in the past, when there were few visitors to Monkey Mia. Today, with more than 100,000 visitors per year, feeding dolphins from fishing boats and other places would result in the dolphins receiving too many fish for their own good!
- Research has shown that dolphins that rely on hand-outs lose their wild instincts, such as their ability to hunt. In the past the calves of some overfed dolphins starved to death because of neglect by their mothers!
Monkey Mia’s dolphins are wild animals that must be able to support themselves in their environment. Calves must learn natural behaviour from their mothers and other adult dolphins so they know how to survive in the wild. Too much feeding and long periods at the beach significantly reduce these vital lessons.
The feeding strategy at Monkey Mia allows for human contact with the dolphins while ensuring the dolphins do not become dependent on handouts or stressed by human interaction.
- Only adult females with good survival skills are fed.
- Males (including male calves) are not fed because they tend to be more aggressive towards other dolphins and humans. Also, sons do not regularly associate with their mothers after being weaned.
- The dolphins are never fed more than a third of their daily food requirements – they still have to hunt for most of their food.
- Only fresh local fish that the dolphins hunt in the wild are used at Monkey Mia. This stops the dolphins from developing a preference for other foods.
- Feeding only takes place in the morning, to encourage the dolphins to spend more time offshore doing their normal activities in the afternoon.
- There are no set feeding times. This prevents the dolphins from becoming conditioned, affecting their natural wild behaviour.
- During feeding the dolphins must not be touched, and the fish must be readily available when they want to eat. This reduces the stress on the animals.
- People are not allowed to give their own fish to the dolphins, either from boats, the jetty or the shore. In fact, it’s illegal to feed dolphins without authorisation anywhere in Western Australia.
To some visitors, these rules may seem tough. But the success of the DEC’s strategy is evident in the dolphins’ survival rates. Between 1987 and 1994, 92% (11 of 12) nursing calves born to provisioned (hand-fed) females died. The high death toll was probably due to overfeeding, unregulated feeding, and dolphins spending too much time in the interaction area rather than caring for their calves. Since 1995, when the DEC changed the feeding program, 23% (3 of 13) of calves born to provisioned females have died, one of whom was killed by a shark.
These improved results would not have been possible without the cooperation of local people and visitors!
The Dolphin Interaction Area
The waters around Monkey Mia are a recreation zone, created to safeguard the human-dolphin interaction and allow compatible recreational activities. The zone extends in an 800 m radius around the end of the Monkey Mia jetty. Within this zone is the Dolphin Interaction Area.
All boating, swimming and fishing is prohibited in the Dolphin Interaction Area, allowing the dolphins to visit without disturbance. They are fed only in this area so that DEC rangers can monitor the dolphins’ health, and record their dietary intake.
Line fishing is allowed in other parts of the recreation zone, but for the safety and welfare of the dolphins spearfishing, netting, water skiing and freestyle jet skiing are prohibited. Your quiet enjoyment will help to ensure the dolphins maintain their natural behaviour and continue to delight generations to come.
Recruitment of new dolphins
To enhance the dolphin experience the DEC occasionally introduces a new dolphin into the beach interaction program. Monkey Mia currently has 13 beach-visiting dolphins, of which 5 adult females are fed.
Beach-visiting dolphins are recruited with extreme care to ensure there is minimal impact on their health and natural behaviour. Since hand-feeding supplies the dolphins with just one-third of their daily dietary needs, only independent juveniles with well-developed survival skills are considered for recruitment. They must be able to fend for themselves, not rely on hand-outs from humans.
Recruitment is a gradual process, involving monitoring by researchers and DEC rangers to ensure the dolphin’s welfare at all times.
- The dolphin is fed away from the other dolphins, to keep any stress to a minimum.
- She is fed only by a ranger.
- She is offered a small amount of fish per feed, so she learns that she must continue to hunt for herself.
- Her behaviour is monitored closely, both inshore and offshore.
The recruitment process may be postponed at any time, for months at a time, depending on the dolphin’s reactions.
Regulating boat encounters
The DEC manages not only the beach-visiting dolphins, but also the wider dolphin population and their habitat. More than 2,000 dolphins inhabit Shark Bay and about 200 live in the waters around Monkey Mia.
At Monkey Mia many visitors go on boat trips to watch the dolphins and other wildlife out in the Bay. These trips are run under the DEC’s strict environmental regulations to ensure that negative impacts on the animals are minimised and the industry continues to be sustainable.
These regulations are necessary because in 2006, a
long-term study found that increased tourism activities resulted in dolphins spending more time further away from Monkey Mia. Tourism boats can also have short-term impacts on dolphin behaviour, including:
- changes in travelling directions and speeds;
- splitting of dolphin groups; and
- an increase in the number of times the dolphins surface for air.
Boat noise may also be a problem for dolphins, since they use acoustic vocalisation to communicate with each other, find their way around, hunt for food and avoid predators. Boat noise can overlap with frequencies used by dolphins, possibly drowning out their vocalisations or forcing them to change these vocalisations.
Dolphins that spend considerable time and energy avoiding boats (and/or boat noise) may be forced to leave their preferred hunting, breeding and resting places, with negative impacts on their population.
The DEC’s management of the Monkey Mia dolphins is based on, and informed by, the best possible scientific evidence. Discover more about Monkey Mia dolphin research
here.