Overview
- Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast recorded dolphins using large empty seashells to capture fish in Hervey Bay between July and October 2025, and those videos were presented in a peer‑reviewed paper in August 2026.
- The behaviour, known as “shelling,” involves chasing fish into a large gastropod shell then lifting and tipping the shell to drain or extract the fish into the dolphin’s mouth.
- The Hervey Bay record is the first published documentation of shelling on Australia’s east coast and complements earlier, unpublished tourist photos from 2013 and 2019 supplied by a local tour operator.
- A mother and calf were filmed shelling together, a sequence that suggests possible maternal (vertical) transmission but which researchers describe as preliminary and say requires targeted, long‑term study to confirm.
- Scientists say the finding widens the known distribution of a rare tool‑use trait seen previously in Shark Bay and that mapping its occurrence and learning pathways will shed light on dolphin culture, cognition and local conservation needs.