Today we went down to the beach quite early in the morning to watch the dolphin feeding! At first there was only one dolphin, then a few more came. In the end there were about eight. Apparently the most they have ever had in one feeding is 26! It was very exciting to see the dolphins up so close, we were allowed to stand in the water, but just not touch them. We learnt lots of interesting stuff about them as well. Dolphins, like humans, need eight hours sleep, but instead of one big block they sleep for a few minutes or seconds at a time through out the day. When they sleep, they only shut down half of their brain, because, unlike humans, they have to think about breathing. This is also why you can’t put a dolphin under anaesthetic, because that shuts down both sides of the brain, that mean that the dolphin would not breath. Dolphins can also sleep with one eye open, to watch out for sharks. The people here only feed the female dolphins, because the males can be too aggressive with each other, and also humans. The people here feed the dolphins three times a day, and they have named each dolphin. They can tell who is who by their fins, often it is the scars on the fins from shark attacks. Dolphins live for about forty years.

This is Nikki.

This is a photo Mum took of a Pelican…

After breakfast we went on a boat tour. The tour went to a Black Pearl Farm, and went around the bay where we got to see lots of sea creatures. It was all very interesting!

At the front of the boat, they had some nets that you can sit in!

This is the Pearl Farm. It is quite fascinating how its just a building in the middle of the water! It is quite an intricate and involved process that produces the black pearls. It takes seven years in total to grow the coloured pearls. While we were at the pearl farm, the people there caught a small shark, we think that they were going to eat it for their lunch!

This is the shark.

We saw some more dolphins on the boat! Notice how this dolphin is carrying some sponge in its mouth, this is so that it can dig down under rocks and things on the ocean floor with out hurting its nose! Apparently, only female dolphins here in Shark Bay do this and if a mother has a boy calf, she won’t teach him, but if she has a girl calf, she will teach her.

At the back of the boat they had a boom net! At the end of the tour, we were allowed to go in it! It was very fun and the boat was going rather fast!

After the tour, we went into Denham to have a look around. On the way back we stopped and had a walk around the Peron Homestead. It was started in the 1880s, operating as a sheep station until the 1990s when low wool prices made it uneconomical. The government then purchased the station and turned it, and surrounding areas, into the Francois Peron National Park.

Here is another road sign!

There was an Artesian bore hot tub at the homestead, that was free to use, and open to the public! It was a bit unusual, being out in the middle of nowhere.

This is inside the old shearing shed.

This is also inside the shearing shed.

On the way out, there were two emus, one was crossing the road!

There was another nice sunset tonight!!
Tara