March 27-29: Moreton Island

In the morning, we drove from Brighton Beach to Brisbane to get on the ferry to Moreton Island for two nights at the Tangalooma Resort. How’d we choose Moreton Island?Long story short(ish). Back in Manly, when we were mapping out our remaining time in Australia, we figured we could incorporate one of two roadtrips: Ayers Rock (aka Uluru) or the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Mick’s #1 request for Australia was a stop at Coober Pedy (pee-dee), famous for its white opal mines and extreme heat (most of the town is underground, including hotels). And, it’s on the way (albeit long) to Ayers Rock. Still, the GBR sounded much better to Jeff (our driver).

After doing some research on the best affordable (oxymoronic) options for seeing the Great Barrier Reef and reading some discouraging commentary about coral bleaching, we decided on Ayers Rock. Unfortunately, in the time it took us to make this decision, no accommodation was available (busy for Easter). Anticipating Mick’s disappointment, I went back to researching. Lightning Ridge, in Queensland, is the Coober Pedy of black opals, and it’s between (or could be) the highly recommended Blue Mountains, not far from Sydney, and The Great Barrier Reef.

I found great Airbnb options, but to really experience the GBR over Easter, ideally in a location without 1) coral bleaching, and 2) box jellyfish and Irukandje (“stinger season” runs from November to May), the former being the deadliest jellyfish in the world, proved impossible. Several TripAdvisor posts mentioned Moreton Island as a unique place for snorkeling and the more I read about it, the better it sounded. They had two nights available, so we booked it. And that was that.

Moreton Island is not part of the GBR, but it is the third largest all-sand island in the world (after Fraser to the north and Stradbroke to the south) and has the world’s highest coastal dune, Mt. Tempest.

And… it has dolphins. Ninety-eight percent of the island is a National Park and Tangalooma Resort provides its lodging. The resort is nice, but not fancy – think Yosemite Lodge, not the Ahwahnee – and you pay for everything.

So, when we saw we had the opportunity to swap maid service for a bottle of wine when checking in, we jumped on it. Duh. Better yet, we ended up getting maid service anyway.

There are enough activities on the island for a week’s stay, but with our one full day we narrowed it down to snorkeling and sand tobogganing (highly recommended by Tara Cross). Luckily, the gray skies cleared, the rain stopped and, with the exception of sometimes-strong wind, the day was perfect. You can snorkel all over the island, but the most popular place is “the wrecks” – 15 ships deliberately sunk in the 60’s to create an artificial breakwater and safe anchorage.

Jeff and Mick rented snorkel gear and the three of us walked down the beach about 20 minutes to the wrecks. The water was really choppy, so I worried as I watched them swim out to the rusted old ships.

When they came in, however, they were all smiles, buoyant with the excitement of having seen and swum through innumerable, varied, and brightly-colored fish. Sadly, our GoPro got left in the car, so you’ll have to take my word for it. So, although I hadn’t planned to snorkel myself, I was easily persuaded. I’ve only snorkeled a few times – in very shallow water, close to the shore. Definitely not in the midst of coral-covered sunken ships. It was great. I loved it.

Mick and Jeff went out for a second time and by the time we got back to the resort, we were too late for the toboggan trip. Mick, however, was happy to just spend time in the pool and later the two of us went down to the EcoCenter to learn about Kookaburras and see them being fed (filet mignon, a low fat dietary requirement!).

Sand Bubbler Crabs
At low tide, these crabs will come out of their holes, looking for organic substances that have been dropped in the sand at high tide.They feed themselves sand with their claws, consume the  organic material, and expel the sand. Then, they form it into balls (about 360 balls per hour) so they don’t waste time with that sand again. Genius.

At 7pm, we met down at the jetty for what the island has become famous for – the wild dolphins, and their nightly feeding by any registered guests who are interested (like anyone wouldn’t?). The history of how this came about is at the bottom of the post. While it wasn’t my fantasy dolphin experience (touching the dolphins is prohibited), I appreciated the resort’s efforts to keep the dolphins wild and I loved it nonetheless. We all did.

Jeff went by himself (in his underwear, much to Mick’s embarrassment) and got to feed his dolphin, Luna, four fish rather than two. He also witnessed one of the highly entertaining rescue pelicans trying to nibble on the our dolphin guide’s leg. Mick and I went together – Mick fed Luna and I fed Cruz (for some reason the dolphins always choose to approach the same side).

After taking the second fish from me, for some reason, Cruz made a quick move, bumping my shins hard (is it weird I hope I get a bruise?), and ending up behind me in the shallow water. At first I thought he might get stuck, but with a hard stroke of his caudal fin, he propelled himself forward and back in position for another hand-fed fish.

After rinsing off our feet, we stopped by the cafe, packed up pizza to-go and savored the last bit of our time at Tangalooma.

THE TANGALOOMA DOLPHIN FEEDING PROGRAM
The below story is a personal account by Brian Osborne, owner and director of Tangalooma Island Resort:

During 1977, 78, 79 and 1980, the Osborne Family visited Tangalooma as Resort Guests.

During that time we enjoyed watching the dolphins visit the Resort jetty at night. Lights had recently been installed on the jetty and they were attracting bait fish for the Dolphins to hunt. In December 1980, the Osborne family purchased the Resort property. At that time Tangalooma Resort employed 27 staff in total. This is a little different to the 325 staff now employed by Tangalooma.

During the 80’s, we continued to visit the jetty at night to look out for the dolphins that arrived at all different times after sunset. The most regular dolphin at the jetty was a dolphin that had been named Eric. Eric became a much more regular visitor in 1986 when he arrived with a new calf that we named Bobo. It was then obvious that Eric was a female. We then thought it wise to change Eric’s name. Betty said that because she had such a beautiful nature she would be named Beauty.

During that time, Resort guests fishing on the jetty at night started throwing their reject fish and bait to Beauty, and she slowly began to accept them. She also began to raise her eyes above the water and look for our guests. This only encouraged the guests more and more to feed her. Betty became concerned about the quality of the fish being cast to the dolphins, so we arranged for a bucket of fresh fish to be left on the jetty each night for guests to cast to Beauty when she arrived. During late 1990 Beauty arrived with a new baby that we named Tinkerbell, and Beauty became a very regular visitor during 1991.

In January 1992 Betty decided that it was time to try to hand feed Beauty as she was becoming very friendly and showed no signs of stress when near Betty on the jetty loading platform. Betty found two other interested staff members and commenced entering the water and casting fish closer and closer. Beauty came close enough in 1992 to take her first fish from Betty’s hand. Bobo and Tinkerbell hung back and watched from a safe distance. The jetty lighting was poor and the water was gloomy and quite scary to enter, particularly as Beauty would not come in closer than shoulder deep water to hand feed.

Throughout 1991 and the winter of 1992, Betty, myself and our poodle Yoplait, spent every night sitting on the patio waiting patiently for the dolphins to arrive. Yoplait was always the first to hear or smell them when they arrived, and would run along the beach and out onto the jetty barking and looking into the water to greet them.

Once Beauty became comfortable being close to us, she began to encourage her siblings Bobo and Tinkerbell to hand feed. Soon after, Bess and Karma started to come in closer to take fish from Betty, and the other Resort staff members.

It soon became apparent that Beauty and Betty had an affinity together, as Beauty would always swim straight to Betty whenever she was present in the water. Beauty was also very comfortable bringing Tinkerbell in close to Betty.

In August 1992, we decided that we could not continue sitting around up until 2.00am to feed dolphins. We therefore made a decision that if they had not arrived by 9.00pm we would pack up and go to bed. It did not take long for the dolphins to learn that lesson and arrive earlier.

1992 was a big year for the dolphin program. By year’s end we had 6 regular dolphins with all except Rani hand feeding.

We had established our Dolphin Care Protocols, and had them approved by the Marine Park Authority. We installed better lighting on the jetty and in December 92 we tentatively commenced to allow Resort Guests into the water to feed the dolphins. We also announced the program to the media and soon became well known around the world for our program.

During 1993 an old male dolphin that we had named Blind Freddie arrived (later reduced to Fred). Fred used to bump into all of us in the water and could not grab the fish properly. We assumed that he was nearly blind. After Beauty, Fred became our second favourite dolphin. For a male, he was just so calm and contented around all of us. Echo arrived in July. His mother brought him in over a period of 3 nights. She stayed out the back, and allowed Echo to investigate. Then they both disappeared for 3 nights and on the fourth night Echo came charging in and commenced feeding greedily. He was only about 8 months old and in very poor condition. It was obvious by then that he had become an orphan. We decided to break our protocol and for the next 2 years, we fed Echo until he was satisfied. He was still too young to survive on his own. Fred took Echo into his charge and they arrived and departed together. At around 2 years old, Echo was observed chasing and eventually catching a fish. We then decided to slowly reduce his feeding intake back down to 20% of his daily requirement like all the other dolphins. Echo is now one of the best and fastest fish hunters in the group. Rani began to feed and with the addition of Fred, Echo, and another arrival Nick, we were up to 9 dolphins feeding on a regular basis.

During 1994 Lefty arrived and Karma stopped attending, but are still often sighted around the area. We opened and staffed our Dolphin Education Centre, and we set up the Tangalooma Research Grant Program to help fund Marine Research in conjunction with the University of Queensland.

Our best news in 1994 was the arrival of Beauty on 10th October with a new born calf we named Shadow.

The second half of 1995 was a devastating time for us. Beauty suffered an infectious tumour on her rostrum that degenerated to a point where she could not swim fast enough to catch fish. We had Sea World Veterinarians observe her and they concluded that nothing could be done to save her. We then turned our minds to Shadow. She was only 9 months old, and not capable of surviving on her own. Our experience with Echo had taught us a lot, and we knew that we had to try and keep Beauty around for as long as possible to give Shadow a chance at survival. We again decided to break from our protocol, and we lifted Beauty’s feeding allowance and started to encourage Shadow with small fish.

Sadly, Beauty last visited us on 24th December, 95. We searched for her for several days without success. Then on 27th December Shadow arrived on her own and we knew then that Beauty was gone forever.

The next 14 years (1996 to 2010) have seen many changes to the program. A new jetty and grandstand, a new Dolphin Education Centre managed by Trevor Hassard and staffed by our extremely dedicated Eco Rangers and other dolphin care team members, and an extensive Marine Education Program which provides free programs to all South East Queensland Schools.

We have lost Freddie and Bess to natural causes. Bess has left behind her 2 boys, Nari and Rani. Freddie has left us with some great memories and many smiles and laughs.

Beauty has left us with some wonderful memories of how she started it all but more importantly, she has left us with her 3 children, Bobo, Tinkerbell and Shadow, Tinkerbell’s 3 children, Tangles, Storm and Phoenix, and Shadow’s 2 children Silhouette and Zephyr. What a family it is. All gentle and well mannered like their mother and grandmother Beauty. With 5 females in the list of offspring, we can hope for many more arrivals and generations to come from Beauty.

When we visit the jetty now to watch the program, I know that Betty’s mind always goes back to remember Beauty as she watches the antics of the young dolphins at play. What an incredible legacy Beauty has left us.

By Brian Osborne – March 2010