I’m Dave the dolphin. I have been around Port Phillip Bay for a long time.

I’ve noticed a lot of changes going on around me over the years: more boats, more light around the coast and then we had this Queen ship – a monster sitting in our territory – looking quite menacing !

I and mine used to surf the wake of the Queenscliff ferry, but we have trouble competing now with the jet skis – they are a danger to us too – noisy beasts. I see lots of big fish  gobbling up  the little fish- do it myself too , but I’ve got to eat. As a senior I have been putting up my flippers a bit lately – and tuning into the ABC. Yak,yak,yak – humans do a lot of it. I get the drift and am a bit worried about what’s going to happen to our Bay.

Mike the mussel man in Dromana bay was sobbing the other day . He’s just getting his mussel farm going again after pollution problems from the new Marina and now he is faced with more problems: trial dredging – or even worse – 2 years of massive disturbance to the waters of the Bay, with heaps of silt dumped locally.
Just when humans got the idea from us that fish is the best diet, it could be that there won’t be much fishing around it seems – what will people eat , what will we eat ??

Dread the Dredge!  Bayside dwellers, Melbournians, Victorians - can’t you see what could happen to the best bay in the world? Is it necessary to have huge boats come in through the Rip (dangerous too)? Most of the ships are smaller and we can swim around them. Is bigger better?

I’m only one of maybe 200, but we have a good time here and I would like to think my kids and theirs will continue to live here forever.

Dave/Jenny Seward
Mornington

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