Ella Bay...More Indo-pacific dolphin sightings!

Ok I am now onto my third and fourth dolphin sighting at Ella Bay.

The third sighting was on the fourth of July and was pretty uninspiring to be honest!!
I was at the Heath Point picnic ground when a single Indo-pacific humpback dolphin decided to zoom past on its way to Ella Bay to the north.

All I got was a single dorsal fin shot much to the amusement of a solitary fisherman who was trying not to fall over laughing at my rock hopping antics.
A couple of days later I saw a professional gill netter laying out gill nets in exactly the same area the dolphin had travelled. Unfortunately gill nets and shark nets pose a significant threat to Australian coastal dolphins like the Indo-pacific humpbacks and annually many die a slow and terrifying drowning death within these nets.

Well that’s not much of a story really so I will give you a sneak preview of my fourth Indo-pacific dolphin sighting on 6 July 2009. This is just a sneaky peek as this day is a whole story in itself.
Up close dolphin action right in front of the proposed urban development/resorts site!

One of the highlights of the day was watching a white bellied sea eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster fishing with the dolphins!! Oh come now Russ your stretching it a little there aren’t you??? I can hear you protest!! Well check out the photos.
The land in the background is in the north end of the bay. These 3 photos were taken at 1 second intervals and the white speck up and to the right of the splash in the second photo is the sea eagle.
As you can guess I was pretty thrilled to witness such an amazing event. It was like watching the navy and the air force working together! You will be glad to know the eagle got a fish and I’m sure the humpback dolphins didn’t go hungry either!

I was going to save this little treat for my next story but you might want to check out my You Tube video of a pod of 5 dolphins feeding in front of the proposed urban development/resorts.
Please excuse my very average film work but to be honest it’s the first time I have made a movie with this camera! Check it out at YouTube.


Well that’s about enough excitement for one story and I will tell you a bit more about my fourth sighting later.

Cheers Russ