Feed Wild Bottlenose Dolphins
Monkey Mia
Updated Apr 2022
I have been to many places where you can swim with captive dolphins. (I have never done it. It is expensive, and I did not like the idea). However, at Monkey Mia on Shark Bay in Western Australia, there is an opportunity to interact with wild dolphins.
It is free, but there is a $10 per person fee to enter the park, whether you go to see the dolphins or not. You can camp at Monkey Mia or rent a room or arrive at 7 a.m. to be in time for the dolphins to come at about 7:45 (dolphin time may not be the same as our time, so you may have to wait a while if they are late).
Each morning some Indian Ocean Bottlenose Dolphins come to the coast for breakfast. A few people are selected each day to enter the water and feed the dolphins. We were lucky enough to be chosen. It was quite a thrill.
There were three dolphins on that morning. The number varies. What is great about this is that they are free, wild dolphins that come if they wish or not and are free to leave any time they want.
The dolphins only get one fish each per visit, up to three visits per morning. If they come more than three times or after noon, they do not get fed. Three fish per day is not near enough to sustain this large animal. This is a good thing as it gives the dolphins a free breakfast and a chance for people to see them, but they still need to hunt for their food and do not rely on being fed by humans.
If you go to Shark Bay, get up early to see the dolphins. You might be selected to feed them, but if not, it is nice to see wild dolphins up close.
It is also a great place to see the friendly Emus that wander through the campground, and if you are lucky, you might see the rare Thick-billed Grasswren.
Shell Beach
Also at Shark Bay is the fabulous Shell Beach. What appears from a distance to be a white, sandy beach is composed entirely of Cockle shells, more than a kilometre long and more than ten metres deep.