Surprise's healing journey

Follow much loved male dolphin Surprise in his healing journey after suffering an attack from a shark.

Press play below to view his recovery.

Credit Melissa Caruso. Music Credit River Flows In You - Yiruma (cover version by ET). This video contains material used for educational purposes only. All content is used in good faith and for non-commercial, non-profit educational commentary.

Surprise is one of our beautiful town dolphins seen in the estuary on almost a daily basis. Unfortunately, late last year he had an encounter with a shark which resulted in a large wound on his left side. As I would spend a lot of time around the estuary dolphin watching, I would see Surprise with his injury and I decided to follow his progress to recovery. While his shark bite was not severe, it was still a significant injury.

Whilst Surprise is quite a social dolphin, he also likes to spend time on his own. His alone time was never for long though, as he would soon be swimming with the other town boys catching fish and splashing around. But even during his alone time, he still seemed happy and content.

My observations of Surprise after his injury was very different. He was no longer swimming with his friends. He wasn’t moving around like he normally does. How much pain he was in? We will never know. Those brief moments that I could look into his eyes told me a lot. I could see sadness and loneliness. He was not the dolphin I knew. It was actually quite sad to see.

As I was taking photos on almost a daily basis, I would notice how the injury was slowly healing. It was so fascinating to see the wound go through the various stages. I, myself, learnt a lot from my observations of Surprise. I would like to say that his unfortunate event taught me a lot and I have a better appreciation for these beautiful animals.

You could definitely tell when he was on the mend. Not only was his wound healing beautifully, he was feeding and splashing around with friends. Taking a photo of him proved to become more difficult, in a good way. He would move at great speeds. He had me going left, he had me going right. I’m pretty sure I did a few pirouettes too to get the photos. I’m almost certain he was looking up at me saying “there’s the lady with the camera again. Time to make her work for the photo.”

The little prankster. I didn’t care how much I had to run around for the photos. All I could see, was the dolphin I knew before the injury. The old Surprise was back!!

Melissa Caruso