Dolphin Viewing at Moreton Island

Experience this once in a lifetime experience and meet the local dolphins at Moreton Island!

Just off the coast of bustling Brisbane, there is an island known for its stunning natural beauty and its amazing animal encounters. Moreton Island is the perfect destination for wildlife lovers, and boasts picturesque sprawling beaches that fall away into shallow blue waters. Around the coast, there are impressive sand dunes that add a surreal silhouette to the horizon.

Throughout the island, there are a number of wildlife watching opportunities, including hundreds of bird species to look out for and a range of native animals that call the island home. But it’s in the waters around Moreton Island where the magic really happens. The unique marine life here draws in visitors from far and wide who want to spot the magnificent humpback whales and the majestic bottlenose dolphins.

About Moreton Island’s Dolphins

Moreton Bay itself is home to more than 600 bottlenose dolphins, many of which bask in the shallows throughout the year. When evening falls, a small, well-known pod make their way to the shores of Tangalooma Island Resort, one of the island’s most visited hotspots. The dolphins in Moreton Island are uniquely different from any other dolphin in existence, all due to them separate themselves from outside pods and only mating within the Moreton Island dolphin pods. Their culture is by far their greatest feature, with their forms of communication truly complex, and they were also known for being altruistic animals, meaning that they take the time to help others.

About the Dolphin Feeding

Dolphin viewing is one of the more popular activities on the island, and one of the main reasons visitors flock to its shores. At the several dive sites surrounding the island, you can get up close and personal with these critters, gliding amongst them and exploring their underwater worldHere, they wait for feeding time, when visitors come together to paddle in the shallows with them and offer them dinner. The Tangalooma Resort pod boasts around eleven dolphins that regularly frolic in the bay, hunting, surfing, and playing with each other. From the jutting jetty at Tangalooma, you can get the perfect vantage point to watch the wild dolphins as they go about their daily lives.

There is a dedicated Dolphin Care Team on hand to see to the dolphins’ needs, monitoring their behaviour each evening, and generally making sure they’re happy and healthy.

If your dream is to spot dolphins in the wild, Moreton Island is definitely the first port of call. The wild dolphins tend to stay close to the shoreline, giving you ample opportunity to spot them flitting between the waves. Whether you want to take to the waters and go diving alongside the magnificent creatures, simply observe them from a designated viewing platform, or take part in their nightly feeding ritual, you can do all of this and more on Moreton Island.

Related article: A guide to dolphin encounters in Australia

Explore the Moreton Island Tours from Brisbane