Fears rare pod of Adelaide city dolphins could die out

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia is home to the world's only city-based dolphin sanctuary was established twenty years ago to protect a rare pod living in an Adelaide estuary. However there are concerns that with more environmental challenges ahead this unique treasure could be lost.

Transcript

00:00It's early morning and Dr Mike Bosley heads out to survey a rare pod of dolphins living

00:12in Adelaide's Port River estuary. He's done this every week since 1988, making his research

00:19one of the longest running dolphin data sets in the world.

00:23We know their life history, we know who their grandmother was and who their mother was and

00:28who they hang out with.

00:30He also knows their names, Mel and her two-year-old calf Eddie, the first spotted.

00:35The dorsal fin just naturally tends to get little nicks and cuts and different shapes

00:41and so forth on it and that's how we can identify almost all of them.

00:46Dr Bosley has dedicated his life to protecting this pod.

00:50In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a number of dolphins were getting killed, shot, speared,

00:58and that got a lot of publicity and was, I guess, the impetus for the government to take action.

01:05The Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary was established in 2005, then home to about 40 resident bottlenose dolphins.

01:13It spans 118 square kilometres over the Port River and Gulf St. Vincent, but encompasses

01:20South Australia's largest shipping and industrial port. Development and heavy industry line the

01:26water's edge. 20 years since becoming protected in this area, the resident dolphin population

01:32has halved.

01:33The significant and important characteristic of this sanctuary is that we've got to retrofit

01:41looking after the dolphins to an established industrial area.

01:43Mariana Borman started volunteering with Dr Bosley when she was 13.

01:48We've certainly had some ups and downs. We used to see a lot more dolphins when the sanctuary

01:53was first started.

01:54While deliberate attacks on dolphins has stopped, boat strikes and fishing line entanglements

01:59haven't and can be fatal. And in 2021, six dolphins died from various illness.

02:07A parliamentary inquiry found toxins weren't the direct cause of deaths, but contributed

02:11to compromised immune responses, leaving the dolphins vulnerable to infections.

02:17Port River water quality is something that concerns senior Ghana woman Lynette Crocker.

02:22She believes pollutants pumped into the river over the past century are to blame.

02:26It's discharged its waste directly into the Port River for many years.

02:30We're not leaving a legacy for anybody else. You know, it's just more damage.

02:39The EPA monitors the Port River estuary. It found Port River dolphins have the highest

02:44levels of chemical pollutant PFAS in the world, where dolphins on the state's west coast have

02:497.25 nanograms compared to almost 2,000 in the port. Authorities say the environment has improved

02:58with better water quality management.

03:01I think if we look after the habitats, the dolphins will look after themselves.

03:04But a new concern has emerged. A deadly algal bloom causing a major crisis along parts of South

03:12Australia's coast since March has spread into the Port River. Authorities believe the bloom

03:19doesn't directly affect mammals, but it can threaten their food source.

03:24And scenes like this are concerning locals. 10 dolphins have washed up dead on SA beaches

03:30since the bloom began. It's another hazard, alongside development and habitat loss.

03:37For somebody that's spent their life trying to protect these dolphins and their habitat that

03:42can keep me awake at night. The dolphins are also a tourism draw card with numerous local businesses,

03:50like this kayak tour, giving people the chance to see the wild mammals up close.

03:54Wow, how good. Experts say these kinds of experiences raise awareness about the need to protect the dolphins.

04:05We're going to come back.

04:08And many hope this resilient pod can overcome the challenges.

04:11Hopefully the population is stabilising and maybe even will recover.

04:17We're very lucky to have a pod of dolphins living so close to a major city.

04:21It's a very special place.

04:24A rarity worth preserving.

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