CEBEL

26/05/2026

Join Flinders University marine researchers at this year’s Winter Whale Fest in Victor Harbor for talks on Adelaide dolphins, South Australian snapper, and Victor Harbor’s shifting shores. 🐬🐟🌊

Saturday 6 June, 11:30 am–12:30 pm, SA Whale Centre, Victor Harbor. Bookings are essential via the link below.

Celebrate the remarkable marine life of the Fleurieu and Adelaide Coast and explore the inspiring work of Flinders University marine researchers. Discover how science is helping protect dolphins and other marine wildlife, support the recovery of snapper stocks, and improve our understanding of wave

15/05/2026

A huge congratulations to our Honours student Abbey for successfully presenting her Honours research seminar: “Nurseries Near the City: Identifying Mother–Calf Hotspots of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) off the Adelaide Metropolitan Coast, South Australia.” 🎉🐬

Abbey’s research explored how mother–calf groups of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins use coastal habitats along one of Australia’s most urbanised coastlines, helping identify important nursery areas and the environmental factors associated with their occurrence. Her work provides valuable baseline information to support the conservation and management of this near-threatened population.

Well done Abbey on all your hard work and an excellent seminar presentation, an exciting contribution to our understanding of dolphin ecology and conservation in South Australia! 👏🌊

A special thank you to Temptation Sailing for their ongoing help and support throughout this project, and for providing an invaluable platform to help advance marine mammal research along the Adelaide coast.

11/05/2026

🐬✨ How close do dolphins need to be to count as a group?

Defining what counts as an animal “group” might sound simple, but for highly mobile species such as dolphins it has long been surprisingly difficult and often subjective. Dolphins are constantly moving, joining, and leaving groups, making their social boundaries incredibly fluid.

In new research led by PhD student Anna Christie from the Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL), we used drones, machine learning, and spatial analysis to measure how close Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins stay to one another in the wild.

🐬📏 By analysing thousands of distance measurements between dolphins in Coffin Bay, South Australia, the study identified objective spatial thresholds that help define dolphin group membership:

📏 ~18 m nearest-neighbour distance
📏 ~24 m inter-individual distance

The research also showed that dolphin spacing changes dynamically with:

🔹 Sighting size (number of individuals)
🔹 Age composition (presence of calves and juveniles)
🔹 Behavioural state (foraging, travelling, socialising, resting)

For example, dolphins spread further apart while feeding, but stay much closer together during social interactions.

Importantly, this provides one of the first objective, data-driven ways to define dolphin groups, an approach that could also help scientists study other social animals where group boundaries are difficult to see directly.

Congratulations to Anna Christie and co-authors Andrew Colefax, Charlie White, and Guido J. Parra on this publication in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology! 👏

Read and share here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-026-03743-3

08/05/2026

Happy 100th birthday, Sir! 🎂🐬🐳

30/04/2026

🐬 Can orphaned dolphin calves survive on their own?

A new study led by PhD student Cristina Vicente-Sánchez from our CEBEL team documents two extraordinary cases of young Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins that survived the loss of their mothers at just 7–10 months old, far earlier than expected.

In species like dolphins, maternal care is everything: protection, nutrition, and learning how to survive. Losing a mother this early is usually considered a death sentence.

Yet… these two calves defied the odds.

✨ One survived to adulthood and even gave birth 14 years later
✨ The other survived for years despite poor health , but tragically died from a boat strike

These rare cases challenge long-held assumptions and raise important questions for conservation and management.

👉 Should orphaned calves always be euthanised?
👉 Or can some survive — given the right conditions?

This research highlights both the resilience of wildlife and the risks they face in human-dominated environments.

📖 Read the full paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.70182

23/04/2026

🌍🐋 One whale is worth a thousand trees.

This Earth Day, let’s talk about one of the ocean’s most powerful climate allies: whales.

Whales don’t just inspire awe - they help fight climate change. Through a process known as the “whale pump,” they circulate nutrients throughout the ocean, fueling phytoplankton growth. These microscopic ocean plants absorb massive amounts of CO₂ and produce much of the oxygen we breathe.

In fact, phytoplankton capture around 40% of global CO₂ emissions - and whales help keep this system thriving. More whales = more carbon captured.

Scientists estimate that a single whale can have the climate impact of thousands of trees. That’s not just poetic - it’s science.

Protecting whales isn’t just about saving a species. It’s about protecting our planet.

🌊 This Earth Day, let’s protect the giants that protect us.

07/04/2026

🦈🐬 When top predators collide…

Sharks and dolphins are iconic ocean predators, yet their interactions are rarely considered in conservation planning.

📈 Our new research led by Jerry Moxley shows that human activity has quietly reshaped predator–prey relationships in the sea, reducing shark predation risk for estuarine and coastal dolphins in many regions. As countries invest in shark recovery and fisheries reform, these dynamics may change again, with cascading effects for marine ecosystems.

💡 Understanding how top predators interact helps explain why ecosystems behave the way they do, and why restoring one species can have unexpected consequences for others.

📄 Read the paper here: https://www.int-res.com/journals/meps/articles/meps15096

👥 Huge thanks to all collaborators and contributors to this global synthesis!

02/04/2026

🎉🐬 PhD submitted: dolphins studied, drones flown, legend confirmed! 🚀

Delighted to share that Charlie White has submitted her PhD thesis 👏

🛸🎮🐬Her research advances the use of drone-based approaches to monitor dolphin vital signs, behaviour, and movement, delivering innovative, non-invasive methods that strengthen our capacity to study and assess marine mammal populations. This work represents a meaningful contribution to both ecological research and conservation practice, particularly in the application of emerging technologies to wildlife monitoring.

This thesis reflects years of rigorous work, creativity, and persistence, and stands as an excellent example of how integrative approaches can push the field forward.

Looking forward to seeing the next steps and impact of this work🐬🚀.

31/03/2026

🚀🌊🐳 The lab has been buzzing with activity!

From new faces just getting started, to students hitting their stride, to others powering toward the finish line ⚡🐬

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve celebrated some incredible milestones:

✨🐳 Marcel Waanders presented his Honours proposal on southern right whale occurrence in Sleaford Bay

✨🐬 Siena Kulinski presented her Honours proposal on Chlamydia prevalence in South Australian dolphins

🎓🐳 Claire Wouters delivered her PhD Confirmation of Candidature seminar, exploring southern right whale movement ecology, acoustics, and cumulative risk across the Australian EEZ 🌏🐋

🎓🐬 Caitlin Nicholls delivered her PhD Mid Candidature seminar on how vulnerable Australian inshore dolphins are to the spread of infectious diseases

🎓🐳 Bridgette O'Shannessy has kicked off her PhD on site fidelity, connectivity, and demography of southern right whales

🎓🐟🐬 Jaiden Lane has begun his PhD investigating how natural selection shapes adaptation in highly dispersive marine species, including fish and dolphins

✨🐬 Riley West-Thompson has wrapped up his Honours fieldwork and is now deep into analysis and writing on human–dolphin interactions in Whyalla

✨🐬 Abbeygale Hill has also completed her Honours fieldwork and is now analysing and writing her thesis on identifying mother–calf hotspots of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins off the Adelaide metropolitan coast

Huge effort from everyone, exciting science, big ideas, and fantastic momentum across all stages 👏

🔥 Driven by curiosity and a shared spirit of discovery, these projects are tackling fascinating questions and generating critical knowledge to better inform the conservation and management of marine mammals.

20/03/2026

It’s been a big week for the CEBEL group! 👏

We’ve had several students present their research proposals, showcasing the exciting work underway in our lab.

On Thursday, Marcel Waanders and Siena Kulinski presented their Honours proposals on southern right whale occurrence in Sleaford Bay, and Chlamydia prevalence in South Australian dolphins, respectively.

Today, Claire Wouters delivered her PhD Confirmation of Candidature, focusing on southern right whale movement ecology, acoustics and cumulative risk across the Australian EEZ.

All three students did an outstanding job with their presentations, and we’re excited to see how their projects develop, and the valuable insights they will bring to the management and conservation of these endangered and at-risk cetaceans. 🌊🐋

10/03/2026

🆕 Have you ever wondered how killer whales live in Australian waters?

Our new collaborative research led by Marissa Hutchings shows their lives can be dramatically different just a few hundred kilometres apart.

Killer whales sit at the top of the ocean food web, and changes in their populations can signal broader ecosystem shifts. Yet until now, we have known surprisingly little about their population status in Australian waters. Using long-term photo-identification and demographic analyses, we compared two key aggregation areas in Western Australia and uncovered striking differences:

🐋 Ningaloo Reef supports a small, stable population (~47 whales) with strong site fidelity and high female survival.

🌊 The Bremer Sub-basin hosts 100+ whales that appear far more mobile and transient.

Despite being relatively close geographically, these populations function very differently. These contrasting demographic patterns likely reflect different ecological and evolutionary histories shaped by environment, behaviour and genetics.

This study provides the first robust demographic baseline for killer whales in Western Australia, showing that conservation strategies must recognise that not all populations are the same.

Understanding these differences is critical as climate change, offshore development and human activity continue to intensify in our oceans.

📜 Hutchings, M. J., Parra, G. J., Wellard, R., Totterdell, J. A., Reeves, I. M., & Möller, L. (2026). Population Demographics of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Western Australia. Marine Mammal Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70151

Understanding population demographics is crucial for the effective conservation of species. This is particularly important for apex predators, such as the killer whale (Orcinus orca), which play impo...