I’ll just put this photo here.
Yep, that is us, hand feeding fish to a wild dolphin.
Pretty cool, huh?!
Well, it was definitely the highlight of my day, that’s for sure.
Let me tell you how it came to be.
Moreton Island is a large island on the east of Moreton Bay, just above North Stradbroke Island. We’d heard of the famous Tangalooma wrecks off the coast of the island, and were both very keen to go snorkelling amongst them. In order to anchor Cool Change off the island however, we would need some very settled and still weather, as there didn’t appear to be many protected anchorages there.
The weather hadn’t been too kind to us recently, and I was conscious of keeping on moving north, to warmer weather. I discovered that there were ferries from Brisbane to the island, and also plenty of accommodation options on the island. When researching further, I found that guests staying at Tangalooma Resort were able to participate in ‘dolphin feeding,’ instead of just ‘dolphin viewing.’ Well, we were both sold. Decision made.
We booked one night’s accommodation, ferry transfers and the dolphin feeding. We also booked a snorkelling tour. This turned out to be rookie error, but I’ll explain more about that later.
Leaving Cool Change berthed at the public pontoons in the Brisbane River, and with Kirsten, Shane and Wayne agreeing to keep an eye on her for us (thanks guys!), we headed off, catching a taxi to the ferry terminal. It was a gorgeous, sunny day as we disembarked from the ferry onto Moreton Island, checked into our room and went to register for the snorkel tour. It turned out that we were the only people booked on the tour, and after half-heartedly trying to get me to switch to a glass bottomed boat tour instead, the manager agreed to run the tour just for the two of us.
We rocked up to the beach at the appointed time with our own wetsuits, snorkels and masks. The guy at the beach wasn’t expecting us and knew nothing about our tour. Huh. From the water sports area on the beach we could see the wrecks, only about a kilometre down the sand. They were also pretty close to the shore, a short swim out. We looked at each other. Why exactly have we booked a tour, when we could easily walk down and swim out there ourselves?
We offered to do just this and get a refund on the tour. After some back and forwards between the poor guy and his manager, we were told definitively that their current policy meant they were unable to give refunds. He did offer for us to instead use a small tinny or stand-up paddle boards. Not much of a novelty for us! We also dismissed the idea of a segway tour; thanks, but not my cup of tea!
Well, then, we’ll just do the tour, we decided. And so, we sat on the beach and waited. It seems that communication and organisation are not strong points of the Tangalooma Resort tour operators. Our boat arrived, with the previous tour participants disembarking, well over an hour after the time we were told to be there. Matt was pretty annoyed by this stage. I just shrugged, ‘island time.’
The dive boat took us on the short trip over to the wrecks and we jumped in. The wrecks were fantastic, really fascinating. There are 17 wrecks, vessels which were deliberately sunk to not only form a breakwall for small boats, but also to create a unique dive and snorkel site. We saw a heap of different fish and some interesting corals. As it was nearing low tide, it was quite shallow, and in some areas you could stand up or even kneel. We had to be careful not to touch the wrecks with our hands to avoid being cut.
We leisurely floated our way through all the wrecks to the end of the line, with the dive boat trailing us. It was really great, and we both enjoyed it. I was, however, very glad to be on the boat speeding back to the beach, as after an hour in the water I was beginning to get a bit cold and my hands were numb. We raced back to our room and I jumped in the shower, having a wonderfully long hot soak until I was nice and warm again.
Later, we wandered along the beach as the sun set, watching the dolphins begin to come in, ready for their dinner. Shane and Kirsten had recommended going down to the jetty early, as the dolphins come in to the shallows to play while they are waiting. This was a great tip, as we watched the dolphins frolicking in the water for about an hour, before it became dark and it was time to feed them.
I was a little bit worried about how ‘touristy’ or ‘commercial’ the dolphin feeding would be. Lucky for us, the island was pretty much empty as the majority of their tourists usually come from overseas or Victoria. So there weren’t too many people, and no really large crowds.
We lined up and waited for our turn. We were instructed to first wash our hands in the bucket of disinfectant, grab three fish each, wade out into knee deep water, and holding onto the tail of a fish, put our arm into the water up to our elbows and offer the fish to the dolphin. It delicately took the fish from my hand, without even touching me. Our dolphin was called Tinkerbell and she was huge. She was about 30 years of age and had had 6 calves. She normally fed with another dolphin, a male called Rani, but he wasn’t there that night.
There were ten dolphins, all from the same family group, and all descended from the same wild dolphin, Beauty, who first began accepting food from humans on the island in the 1990s. The staff know all the dolphin’s names and personalities and have some strict rules in place to protect the dolphins. While it was so tempting to pat them, this was a very strict no-no. There is a fascinating account of how it all came to be, written by Brian Osborne, the owner of the resort, on the Tangalooma Island Resort website.
It was an absolutely incredible experience and we both felt so lucky to have the opportunity to get up so close and to interact with one of these beautiful animals. We were lucky enough to have a second turn at feeding Tinkerbell, with the staff member on our line inviting us to grab some more fish, because there were so few people, and so many fish still to be given! After that, we reluctantly said goodbye to Tinkerbell and headed back to our room to change out of our wet clothes. What a night!
The following day we spent a leisurely morning in the hotel room, enjoying the novelty of watching TV in bed (There’s no TV on Cool Change.) Then we wandered south along the beach to see some more of the island. It was a perfect day, idyllic island weather. Sunny and warm, not a quiver of wind and glassy still water. I even wore a dress! I was hoping to see a dugong, who apparently come into the shallows to eat the sea grasses, but no such luck. We didn’t see a single sea animal. There was a moment of excitement when Matt thought he saw a turtle in the water. While he raced to get his camera out, I began wading in only to find that our turtle was just a big rock. Excitement over!
The crystal clear water was incredibly inviting, and for once I felt warm enough to swim. The beach was deserted so Matt stripped off and went for a nudie swim. After a moment’s hesitation, I joined him. The water was very shallow for a long way out, so it was a quick albeit refreshing dip.
Making our way back to the resort, we shared a bottle of rosé while we waited for the ferry. Yes, we could definitely have brought our own boat over here, we reflected, and it would have been lovely, but feeding the dolphins was awesome and we were so grateful for the experience we had. What a trip!
There’s no question dolphins are smarter than humans as they play more.
Albert Einstein
Cool Change 
Wonderful !
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