FISHING fleets may have sparked social upheaval in a dolphin community off
eastern Australia. After monitoring dolphins in Moreton Bay for two years,
zoologist Louise Chilvers of James Cook University in Queensland concluded that
the animals are divided into two cliques. One makes a living from the spoils of
trawlers, while the other forages in seagrass.
The two groups seemed to avoid each other. Only three meetings out of the 465
observed included dolphins from both groups. The study is the first to report
such a schism. It appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B(vol
268, p 1901).…
