DOLPHIN SWIM AUSTRALIA CELEBRATES 100+ TOURS AND A 90% SUCCESS RATE!

Dolphins in the blue. We love it!

What a season!

Our 2025/2026 season has come to an end! We are absolutely stoked to announce that Dolphin Swim Australia ran 107 tours during the 2025/26 season. Our previous record was 80 tours in a season, so this has been, without a doubt, the biggest and most successful season in DSA history.

We were blessed with incredible weather conditions throughout the season, allowing us to get out on the water almost every day. The ocean truly turned it on for us this year.

Crystal Clear Water

One of the standout features of this season was the visibility.

Port Stephens is famous for its beautiful blue water, but like any coastal environment, it can occasionally turn green after strong winds or rain. This year, however, we enjoyed months of stunning conditions, with many tours experiencing visibility of 20 metres or more, and a handful of unforgettable days reaching an incredible 30 metres.

The funny thing is that visibility isn't actually what makes a great dolphin swim.

When the water is murky, the dolphins often come even closer to investigate swimmers. Sometimes they're so close you feel like you could almost reach out and touch them (don't worry—we never do!).

But there is something truly special about seeing a pod of dolphins in crystal-clear water. You can make out every detail—the shape of their eyes, the subtle markings on their skin, and even the scratches and scars they pick up while playing and socialising with each other.

While clear water isn't essential for an amazing encounter, it certainly made this season one to remember.

Dolphins Everywhere

Another reason this season has been our greatest yet is the sheer number of dolphins we encountered.

Common dolphin pods can range anywhere from a handful of animals to hundreds. Once or twice each year we are lucky enough to witness a "superpod"—more than 1,000 dolphins travelling together through the bay. It's one of those sights that simply can't be described until you've seen it with your own eyes.

This season felt like one giant superpod.

Pods of more than 100 dolphins became almost a daily occurrence, and even our experienced crew found themselves constantly amazed by the numbers we were seeing.

A 90% Success Rate

Perhaps most exciting of all was our dolphin swim success rate.

This season we achieved an incredible 90% success rate, meaning nine out of every ten tours successfully entered the water and swam with dolphins.

When you think about it, that's pretty remarkable.

We're not using drones, spotter planes, or high-tech tracking systems. We're heading out into the open ocean with years of local knowledge, a great crew, a sharp pair of eyes, and yes—a very fancy set of binoculars.

To consistently locate wild dolphins and create unforgettable encounters is something we're incredibly proud of.

For the small percentage of guests who don't get a swim opportunity, we offer a complimentary return trip. Many come back the very next day and enjoy an amazing encounter, so if you're planning a visit, it's always worth leaving a spare day in your itinerary just in case.

Interestingly, we were tracking at around 95% success for most of the season before a run of windy conditions right at the end brought us back to 90%.

We'll take that!

Our favourite vision!

Thank You

Dolphin Swim Australia is still a small, family-run business, and we're continually blown away by the support we receive.

To everyone who joined us on a tour this season, shared our content, told a friend about us, left a review, or simply followed along online—thank you.

Your support allows us to do what we love every day, and we never take that for granted.

We're incredibly grateful that we get to share these encounters with people from all over the world, helping create memories that last a lifetime.

We have some seriously exciting stuff coming up over the next few months- we can’t wait to share it with you! Here's to an even bigger 2026/27 season.

See you on the water.

Yours truly,
Adam Wiltshire
Owner / Operator
Dolphin Swim Australia

Final Call: Last Tours of the Season!

When the team are jumping in without wetsuits- you know it’s warm!

Hey Dolfamily,

We have JUST 4 TOURS LEFT before we wrap up our 25/26 season.

We’ll be finishing up after this ANZAC Day long weekend, then going into hibernation until October!

And wow… what a season it’s been.
Easily the Greatest Season Of All Time—with incredible conditions and a mind-blowing amount of dolphins!

If you’ve been thinking about joining a tour… now is the time.

Why Right Now Is So Good

The water is WARM—like, really warm.
It’s currently sitting around 24°C, and it’s beautifully clear and blue.

A lot of people don’t realise this, but we actually get our warmest water after summer—through March and April.

So if you’re chasing those dreamy conditions… this is it.

“Are There Still Dolphins This Late in the Season?”

We get asked this a lot at this time of year.

Short answer: YES.

There are just as many dolphins at the end of the season as there are at the start (and the middle too).

The Common Dolphins we swim with aren’t seasonal at all—we see them year-round.

So Why Does the Season End?

Our “swim season” is based on best conditions + warm water, not dolphin numbers.

Come May:

• The boat comes out of the water for maintenance

• We switch gears into whale watching season 🐋

So the season doesn’t end because the dolphins disappear…
we just shift focus for winter.

A customer with a big pod of Common Dolphins. How many can you count?

Last Chance

So if you’ve been sitting on the fence—this is your sign.

4 tours left. Warm water. Epic conditions. Plenty of dolphins.

What more could you want?

We hope to see you on board before the season wraps up!

Smooth sailing,
Adam
Dolphin Swim Australia

Life, Love and Dolphins: Our First Blog Post

Ahoy and welcome to our blog!

This is one of the many things we’ve been meaning to do for a long time—but we usually prefer hanging out with dolphins! Now that our season has just finished up, we’ve got a bit more time to sit down and write down our dolphiney thoughts.

What’s This Blog All About?

From here on, we’ll be updating this blog pretty regularly with:

• Dolphin sightings & stories from the water

• Interesting info about their environment

• Trip reports and behind-the-scenes chaos

• Local tips about Port Stephens

That’s what we love about our tours—every single day is different!
Will we find 10 dolphins or 1,000?
Will there be whales out and about?
Will cheeky seals try to keep up with the dolphins?

If you're keen to see what’s going down on our tours, this is the place to check it out!

Port Stephens Love Letter

We’re also going to be writing about the beautiful place we call home—Port Stephens! Honestly, it’s one of the most epic places in Australia. It’s insanely beautiful and there’s just so much to do.

We’ll be sharing:

• Cool places to stay

• Yummy food to eat

• Adventures to try while you’re here

Whether you’re visiting for a tour or a full-blown holiday, we’ve got you covered!

Meet the Crew (aka the Dolfamily)

Key team members will take turns writing this blog. That means you might get:

• Ramblings from me – (Adam) owner of Dolphin Swim Australia

• Dolphin science from the one and only Dr David Scott (who literally wrote a book about dolphins- it’s called ‘A Book About Dolphins’… classic!)

• Cool vibes from young Blake – our newest team member who soaks up dolphin info like a sea-sponge and is just like me, but smarter…

• Shannon, one of our OG’s who lives and breathes Dolphin Swim. Another dolphin whizz who just loves what he does!

• Joel- A one of a kind, half human, half dolphin morph- known affectionately as the ‘Joelphin’. He communicates mostly via echolocation, so the blog writing might be a challenge!

• Geri- The Hungarian Hawkeye! He can spot a dolphin from a kilometre away, but more importantly- he’s an international award winning underwater photographer! His photos are amazing- nearly all of our dolphin photos are taken by Geri!

We honestly reckon we’ve got the best team in the world—our little dolfamily!

A few of the Dolfamily members on a glorious afternoon!

Okay… Who Am I?

I probably should start this whole thing by introducing myself properly.

My name’s Adam, and I run Dolphin Swim Australia with my wife, Ellie Wiltshire. I’ve been along for the DSA ride since it began—15 years ago!

I was lucky enough to grow up on beaches and boats and started freediving with my dad when I was about 8. My dad (an electrician) found out about Dolphin Swim Australia while working on a jobsite with a builder—Andrew Parker, one of the original creators of DSA. Dad introduced us (I was around 17), I showed up to do some volunteer work on the tours—and never left!

Since then I’ve completed a Bachelor of Environmental/Marine Science, became a PADI Divemaster, and recently got certified as a Molchanovs Freediving Instructor. Ellie and I have owned the business for the last five years.

Not gonna lie—part of the reason I was so enthusiastic about the job was because I wanted to impress Ellie…
It worked. We’re married now! 💍

She’s a smart cookie and a seriously hard worker. She studied Business Management and helps take care of all the businessy, social media-y, behind-the-scenes type stuff. But honestly—working on the boat together is my absolute favourite thing ever.

We love a good adventure and try to spend as much time as we can out in the sunshine—chasing waves, boating, spearfishing, vanning up and down the coast, or galivanting overseas during the off-season.

When it’s on, it’s on—this is one of the coolest jobs in the world, but it definitely keeps us busy!

We’re also fans of a good DIY house reno. No idea why we keep torturing ourselves with them, but hey… it’s kinda fun. Kinda.

Nothing makes me prouder than being on the water with my two loves! Eddie showing off his signature scrunch face… How good are film photos!

Meet the Littlest Dolphin Lover

Speaking of being busy—this season, we had a new little calf join our family pod:
Eddie Blue Wiltshire.

We reckon he’s even cuter than a baby dolphin—but maybe we’re biased! He’s been coming out on the occasional tour since he was just a month or two old.

And get this: every single tour Eddie has been on has been absolutely epic. Like, next-level stuff.

Eddie Blue brings the vibes, man. I think the dolphins are just as curious about human babies as we are about theirs!

Start them young. Lessons from the legendary Captain Frank Future!

Why We Do What We Do

At the end of the day, this is what we’re about:

Epic, ethical, life-changing human-dolphin swim interactions—and a whole lotta fun.

For me, it’s not just about the dolphins. It’s about meeting a new group of people every day and helping them tick off a lifelong dream.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy keeping up with this blog, and I hope to meet you on board sometime soon.

Smooth sailing,
Adam
Dolphin Swim Australia