If you have always loved the dolphins of Mandurah, now you can monitor the dolphins of Mandurah!

Dolphin Watch will launch in Mandurah with a free training session to teach volunteers how to identify and monitor the dolphins.

Just like in the Swan Canning Riverpark, volunteers will be able to use the Dolphin Watch app to record numbers of dolphins present, mother-calf pairs, behaviours, tidal movement and much more.  The app also has an image and video recoording function.

The data collected via the app will contribute to scientific research. 

If you would like to become part of Dolphin Watch Mandurah, please join us for the first training session.

Date: Wednesday 21 March

Time: 6 - 8.30pm

Venue: Mandurah Seniors and Community Centre, Main Hall. 

RSVP NOW

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Rivers and Estuaries Division have had some acoustic receivers go missing at Blackwall Reach and Point Walter.
They are essential in our long-term monitoring program of fish movement in the Swan Canning Estuary.

If you are diving in the area please keep an eye out for the receivers.
If you see one, take the best location you can and let the Department know so it can be retrieved.

Please forward any information to rivers.info@dbca.wa.gov.au

A highly invasive species, Amazon frogbit (Limnobiumin laevigatum) has been found in Bayswater Brook.

Amazon frogbit is a floating aquatic plant that is sold for use in aquariums but is a highly invasive species when allowed to populate waterways.

Prevention and early detection are the key to managing the species.
The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions is working closely with officers in local government and at the Water Corporation to search for the initial source point along the Bayswater Brook. There is a risk that rainfall may have spread the weed into the Swan River.

How can you assist?

Members of the public can play a helpful role in early identification and even prevention of the spread of Amazon frogbit.
If you see a new plant you do not recognise, getting it properly identified before controlling it is important, as it is easy to mis-identify plants.

For more information, or if you have seen Amazon frogbit in your local waterway, please contact river.info@dbca.wa.gov.au.

Download the Amazon frogbit information flyer here.

We have made it even easier for you to help clean our rivers.

Together with Bayside Kitchen - Matilda Bay and Walters River Cafe - Point Walter we have installed signage with rubbish bags, rubbish tongs and instructions on how you can help!

All you need is 5 minutes - grab a bag, tongs and pick up the rubbish along the foreshore. Take your bag full of rubbish to the nearest bin and the native wildlife will thank you for it :)

Don't forget to take a pic and share it with us using the hashtag #cleanourrivers on River Guardians Facebook or Instagram. 

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions is encouraging recreation river users and fishers to please avoid Point Walter Spit. There are an estimated 60 breeding pairs of Fairy Terns making use of the vegetation and shoreline at the end of the Spit. The City of Melville has erected signage discouraging access to the end of the Spit.

It is estimated that there are less than 1600 breeding pairs of Fairy Terns left in Western Australia. These tiny birds nest between October and January and, like many shorebirds, will nest above the high-tide mark on sandy beaches, where they lay one or two speckled eggs in a shallow scrape in the sand. The eggs and chicks are highly vulnerable to disturbance as well as predators.

Other birds, including Pied Oyster Catchers and Red-Capped Plovers also nest in this area.  Birdlife WA and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions River Guardians program have recently installed chick shelters at the end of the Spit to give the birds a helping hand and are monitoring the area. 

Learn more about beach nesting birds and what can be done to help protect them by visiting the Birldlife WA website.