Extremely rare moment off Aussie island ends six-year search for 'cryptic' species

Yahoo

22-05-2025

Since moving to an idyllic Aussie island six years ago, two brothers have spent countless hours observing the fascinating marine creatures that live in the surrounding water. Despite their passion and persistence, one 'rare and cryptic species' has always eluded Oliver and Lawrence Scheele — until now.
Taking advantage of the nice weather on Monday, Oliver launched his drone off Queensland's Magnetic Island to try his luck. From frolicking whales to hammerhead sharks and eagle rays leaping at sunset, Oliver told Yahoo News he 'never knows' what he's going to see but hopes for the best.
After scanning the murky bay and finding 'nothing', Oliver was about to pack up and head home when what he thought was a turtle caught his eye.
'I almost was going to leave but I thought I would hold off for a bit and see if it would come back up,' he explained. 'It came back up and I thought 'that's a weird looking dugong'.'
Despite his initial confusion, the young man quickly realised it was actually an 'extremely rare' and 'very cute' Australian snubfin dolphin. Only identified as a new species in 2005, the 'unique' creatures live in shallow inshore waters across the country's north and southern Papua New Guinea.
Oliver's footage, which experts have described as 'great', shows a pod of about seven snubfin dolphins 'in a group all hunting together', including one juvenile chasing a fish gliding on the surface. In another clip, a snubfin 'imposter' can be seen trying to blend in with two Australian humpback dolphins.
'Seeing these dolphins was a privilege as they are so rare,' Oliver told Yahoo, adding he couldn't wait to tell his brother, who had long hoped to track down a photograph of a snubfin to include in his upcoming field guide about the marine life of Magnetic Island.
'It's a very amazing sighting — that's the first time I've ever seen them, and we've been actively looking for around six years,' Lawrence, a marine biologist, told Yahoo.
'They're considered highly elusive. They originally had a habitat just outside the Ross River mouth, but since that port development and the port expansion, they've moved. So ever since that happened, reportings have been less and less.'
Lawrence said the species, likened to a 'skinny dugong', was one of the final pieces of the puzzle for his book, which will soon be sent off to publishing.
'I didn't have a photo. I've never seen them before, and people I reached out to have also never seen them or don't have a photo because of their elusive nature. So it was just like divine timing finding them that morning,' he explained.
'Habitat destruction loss and degradation is really affecting their population so to see a relatively large pod of them socialising and hunting on Magnetic Island is just really special.'
🏝️ Incredible encounter of rare shark filmed near Aussie island: 'Amazing'
🦈 Locals in awe as rarely-seen creature washes up on remote beach
🌊 Incredible footage of special creature 'very rarely seen in Australia'
Australian snubfin dolphins are listed as vulnerable globally and in Queensland, with the Townsville and Cleveland Bay region home to one of the state's largest known populations, Simon Miller from the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) told Yahoo.
'But these are still small and fragmented, with limited connectivity to other populations,' he said. 'They tend to be quite a shy species that live in small populations and are typically found in shallow, turbid waters making sightings rare.'
Two of the snubfins filmed by Oliver appeared to have injuries on their tails and backs, which he believed may have been caused by boat strikes. The biggest threats to the species are bycatch in commercial gillnet fisheries, habitat degradation and climate change, according to Miller.
'Snubfin dolphins are slow to reproduce and so the loss of even small numbers of individuals can set a population back decades,' he said, adding the Queensland government's decision to phase out gillnet fishing in the Great Barrier Reef by mid-2027 is 'crucial to provide increased protection for this iconic threatened species'.
Improving the condition of inshore habitats is also vital, he said. 'Restoring degraded wetlands reduces the amount of pollutants entering the ocean which can then accumulate in species like snubfin dolphins and impact their long-term health.'
Do you have a story tip? Email: [e-mail].
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.