Speckles the rare piebald dolphin sighted by researchers off Hervey Bay
University of the Sunshine Coast researchers believe they have recorded one of the world's most unusually coloured dolphins for the first time in Australian waters.
PhD candidate Georgina Humes could hardly believe her eyes when a patchy black-and-white dolphin leapt three times out of the water near their research vessel in Hervey Bay.
Speckles has unusual markings. (Supplied: Georgina Hume)
"It was near the end of the day, we were about to head in and we saw this massive leap, this massive splash so we thought we'd go over to investigate," Ms Hume said.
"It's pretty exciting, we looked it up and we found out that no one had ever really documented any sightings of these piebald dolphins in Australia."
Georgina Hume wants more protection for dolphins. (Supplied: University of the Sunshine Coast)
Genetic mutation
Piebaldism involves the partial loss of pigmentation, so the animal has a patchy colouration.
Speckles, as they named the adult dolphin, was swimming with five other bottlenose dolphins about 16 kilometres off Scarness beach.
"We don't know if it's a male or female, we believe it has a genetic mutation," Ms Hume said.
"One of the key things of this piebaldism is that they can look a little bit sunburned, so the top of its dorsal fin had a bit of red."
Ms Hume was excited to make the discovery. (Supplied: Georgina Hume)
Speckles, which had a distinctly marked dorsal fin and white stripes along its body and belly, was spotted only one time, in September 2022.
The dolphin had a healed shark bite on its right side and appeared healthy.
Since their sighting, University of the Sunshine Coast researchers have been investigating just how rare their discovery was.
Speckles was spotted off Hervey Bay. (Supplied: Georgina Hume)
Rare sighting
They found that it was one of only six cases in the world where photographic evidence of piebald dolphins had been captured, and only the second to be documented in the southern hemisphere.
"The best part of science happening in real life is where you get to see something for the first time and really experience it," University of the Sunshine Coast behavioural ecologist Alexis Levengood said.
"I've worked in this field for about 15 years across three different continents and I've never seen it myself firsthand so once we brought back the photos it was a pretty exciting afternoon for us," Dr Levengood said.
Gemma Webster and Alexis Levengood are researching dolphins. (Supplied: University of the Sunshine Coast)
As the lead author of the four-year study, Ms Hume is investigating dolphins in the area north from the Moreton Bay Marine Park, concentrating on the Sunshine Coast and Great Sandy Marine Park.
The last study in Hervey Bay was more than 15 years ago.
An adult Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin adult swims with a baby. (Supplied: Georgina Hume)
Ms Hume said she had been finding smaller groups of four to five dolphins in Hervey Bay compared to large groups of up to 50 individuals further south.
"What's also pretty exciting is we do have a bit more of an uncommon species, Australian humpback dolphins, which are currently classified as vulnerable," Ms Hume said.
An adult humpback dolphin swims with a baby. (Supplied: Georgina Hume)
"At the moment they're not really thought to be resident on the Sunshine Coast but I've definitely found some resident ones here that we see quite often so that's pretty exciting too."
Australian humpback dolphins are the species regularly seen, and fed under strict supervision, in Tin Can Bay.
Migaloo swims by Byron Bay in northern NSW in July 2016. (Supplied: Craig Parry)
Ms Hume hoped that like Migaloo the white whale, the discovery of Speckles would bring greater awareness to dolphins, which were threatened by fishing line entanglements and boat propeller strikes.
"We're hoping that my PhD is the start of a long-term project in the region and it might help with the potential of starting a marine park down here [off the Sunshine Coast]," she said.
"That would obviously be the dream to have a bit more protection because we're one of the only bits of coastline, down in this region, that doesn't have that level of protection."