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ADOPT-A-KILLER-WHALE

Help protect our dolphins and whales

Adopting a killer whale is one of the most special ways you can help to protect Victoria’s most loved creatures and their marine environment.

The $98 annual membership supports our Research, Education and Leadership programs.

Adopt A Killer Whale

Below you can meet Split Fin, one very special killer whale recorded in our waters.

Our research team identifies individual killer whales using images of their dorsal fins, eye patches and saddle markings. These images are mostly taken by many keen citizen scientists and later submitted to Killer Whale Australia and the Dolphin Research Institute through our sighting reporter program “PodWatch

The Dolphin Research Institute proudly hosts Killer Whales Australia which catalogues and records sightings of more than 60 individual killer whales collected over two decades.

Our research provides crucial basic information about the whales and dolphins in our region. All reports are publicly available and shared with federal and state governments, the International Whaling Commission and the Southern Hemisphere Whales and Climate Project.

Join us as a hero for our dolphins and whales.

Split Fin

Split Fin is perhaps Australia’s best-known killer whale. She has been known to researchers since 2003 when she was first photographed near the old whaling town of Eden in New South Wales.

She and her pod have been sighted almost every year since 2003. It is believed that Split Fin is the matriarch of a family of killer whales that roams the east Australian coast between Jervis Bay in the north to the Derwent River in Tasmania – they’ve even been sighted in South Australia!

As well as being the best-known killer whale, she is also the most recognisable due to the damage to her dorsal fin which was almost certainly caused through contact with a boat propeller. The fact that she survived this injury is remarkable in itself but to survive and thrive as leader of her family group is truly something special.

We look forward to learning more about Split Fin and her family as time goes on and are glad you are helping us uncover the secrets of Australia’s greatest and most mysterious large predator.

READ ABOUT THE PROGRAMS YOU ARE HELPING TO SUPPORT

Adopt-A-Dolphin supporters are the heart of our organisation

This is what they say…

"We Adopt-A-Dolphin because we trust the team and believe in the work to protect marine life and the bays."

"We have been part of the DRI family for over 20 years now, and love the visionary approach."

"It has and continues to be such a rewarding journey."