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Dolphins on Australia’s East Coast Filmed Using Seashells to Hunt

A peer‑reviewed study says Hervey Bay footage indicates calves may learn the shelling technique from their mothers, which could change how scientists think tool use spreads in dolphin groups.

Image
Dolphins Filmed Hunting With Shells – And Possibly Passing The Skill to Their Offspring
This image shows a shelling event that occurred on January 4, 2019. Image credit: Levengood et al., doi: 10.1111/mms.70252.

Overview

  • Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast recorded two shelling events off Hervey Bay between July and October 2025 and recovered earlier photos from 2013 and 2019, with the findings published in Marine Mammal Science on August 8, 2026.
  • Shelling is a hunting technique in which a dolphin chases fish into a large empty gastropod shell, lifts the shell to the surface, and tips or shakes it to drain and eat the trapped prey.
  • One 2025 sequence shows an adult female and her calf shelling in the same spot within minutes of each other, offering the first suggestive evidence of maternal (vertical) social transmission of the skill.
  • Until these records, shelling had been documented only at Shark Bay in Western Australia, so the Hervey Bay sightings raise questions about independent invention versus a wider but previously undetected distribution.
  • Authors and other scientists call for more systematic observation, larger sample sizes, and targeted study of local ecology and social networks to confirm transmission pathways and assess what the behavior reveals about dolphin cognition and culture.