"Chippie"

by Stefan Bagg

December tends to be a busy month for dolphins, at least from our point of view. If in fact they do go into a form of hibernation, or some form of migration, of which there is no clear evidence , then now is the time they begin to re-emerge in greater numbers. It is also the time we begin to see an initial increase in the number of calves present within "nursery" pods. However early in December '94 a very unusual and exciting calf entered our world.

It was a typical, relatively calm morning with a hint of an early SW breeze on an outgoing tide. Often when we leave the pier at this time of the year in the mornings there are rarely any other boats out, especially if it is midweek. As it happened, this day was no exception. Unusual for this early in summer, the sun already had some intensity to it, and the early morning glare was quite strong off the back deck. In the shade though it was still cool and covered in dew. Several lazy low flying pelicans followed us briefly as we headed towards the channel markers off Pt King then veered off towards the south channel and continued on to the north west.

Pt King is one of the first sites in Victoria visited by the white colonist settlers and played a significant role in the early establishment of the local fishing industry. From here scouts would lookout for schools of salmon and couta moving up into the bay and direct the boats towards them. Here too the dolphins would come to hover over the edge of the reef waiting for the unsuspecting schools as well. The commercial fishing industry has long ceased to exist within the southern end of the bay along with the demise of the once seemingly inexhaustible supply of marine life through its short term over exploitation. But still to this day, the dolphins will frequently stop off here to hunt the odd school or two and sometimes forage amongst the rocks for other tidbits like crabs, octopus or squid when they can find them. Generally they will come through at times when the conditions are such as they were on this morning. Unfortunately as the day moves on this area will usually be crisscrossed by dozens of speedboats and jetskis often even by mid-morning. Therefore as we approached the reef we were reservedly optimistic about our chances of seeing dolphins early.

So it was with some trepidation nearly two hours later after having already steamed past Portsea Pier, the Quarantine Station along Ticonderoga Bay, and out to Pope's Eye when on our return from the Chinamans Hat to Police Pt and Weeroona Bay we glimpsed our first sighting of a small pod. Tony was skippering on this occasion and his long distance sight over water is truly incredible. While I was scanning the near horizon with binoculars he spotted what he thought was a slow moving pod over 2 kilometres ahead of us on the other side of the South Channel and travelling away towards Pt Franklin. As we eventually got closer to Pt Franklin and Shelly Beach we lost sight of the pod. Travelling along the inside of the moorings, avoiding the now more steady stream of traffic we noticed a pod of about 5 dolphins 200m ahead of us picking their way steadily towards Pt King. Then suddenly out of nowhere this tiny calf came speeding towards us, followed at some distance behind by a mature dolphin.

It is very common for dolphins to approach Polperro out of the blue as she has a wide beam for her size and an enormous raked bow which displaces at least a half metre wave even at speeds less than 5 knots. So a sight like this with larger, more mature dolphins wanting a "free ride" is something we had more or less come to expect. But to see such a young calf, which we estimated to be only a month or so old, approach both unaided and unsupervised was a first. That this calf could swim so quickly and that it could break into our bow wave was just amazing. The determination in its effort was obvious to all those on board (now piled on top of each other gazing over the bow entranced with the spectacle below) as its tiny body literally quivered as it tried to pick up enough speed to stay within the underwater pressure wave ahead. In comparison other larger dolphins will easily glide into this wave rolling and lolling before us in what appears to be an effortless, almost stationary position just ahead of the bow.

Concerned that such an effort may be harmful to its overall energy expenditure, Tony slowed the boat down until we were drifting. By this time the rest of the pod had approached and one of the adults had shepherded away the calf. However the calf was having none of that, and constantly eluded its mother and returned to our now motionless boat. It came back several times more quivering impatiently at the bow waiting for another ride before being forcefully escorted away by another older dolphin once again. Eventually frustrated with our lack of response it started swimming right up to the bow and brushing up against it, then it stated slapping the bow with its tail flukes. Totally bemused and startled at its reaction, Tony decided to slowly start up the engines and we cruised for a short while at only a few knots. At this the calf became so excited it started racing ahead of us and jumping out of the water, then racing back to us and slapping the bow. Since it showed an unabashed affection for our wooden hull Tony dubbed it "Chippie" in honour of the reputed love carpenters have for wood.