Every morning, dolphins visiting Monkey Mia attract over 100,000 tourists to the beach each year, and for good reason—there’s no place like it in the world.
If you’ve ever wanted to see a dolphin up close in its natural environment, and if you’re lucky, even feed it a tasty treat, then there’s no better place to do that than Monkey Mia, the only beach in Australia where dolphins visit daily.
The wild dolphins at Monkey Mia, located on the Western Australian coast, began to become accustomed to humans in the early 1960s when local fishermen started tossing fish to them.
It didn’t take long for rumors about the friendly dolphins around Monkey Mia to spread, and soon after, the resort’s popularity soared among tourists.
However, by the 1980s, marine researchers noticed a concerning trend: as dolphins became increasingly dependent on humans for food, their mortality rates began to rise.
Things became so dire that, according to some experts, 90% of dolphins did not reach maturity. Fortunately, conservation agencies began to regulate the feeding of dolphins.
Feeding wild dolphins is a controversial issue, as studies show it can negatively impact their reproduction and survival rates, but some experts believe the experience for the dolphins at Monkey Mia is more beneficial than harmful, and any negative impacts affect individuals rather than the dolphin population as a whole.
Monkey Mia becomes the only beach in the world where dolphins visit daily.
Today, only a few dolphins visit the Monkey Mia beach each day, and they are only fed a small portion of their daily needs to ensure they continue to hunt and teach their young the necessary survival skills.
Lucky visitors are only allowed to feed the dolphins under the supervision of authorized staff.
“We only provide about 10% of their daily food intake,” marine park coordinator Luke Skinner told ABC News.
This ensures that the dolphins still have to forage for and hunt 90% of their food. We go out there with a bucket of fish, and if they show interest, we can give them a small amount.
The dolphins visiting Monkey Mia every morning attract over 100,000 tourists to the beach each year, and for good reason—there’s no place like it in the world.
Visitors can get close to the dolphins, interact with them, and learn about them as well as their environment.
Monkey Mia is home to about two hundred dolphins, but only five adult females are fed by humans as part of the famous Monkey Mia dolphin experience.
If some regular visitors stop appearing for an extended period, other wild dolphins are trained to visit the beach daily, as the show must go on.
