Kangaroo Island dolphin swim and tour, South Australia

Planet

Kangaroo Island (or KI as the locals call it) has an abundance of the most beautiful native wildlife including wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, bandicoots, platypus, eagles, ospreys, Australian sea lions, fur seals and of course the curious dolphins. We encourage our guests to respect the wildlife and we like to also lead by example. Some of these examples include..
-We follow responsible guidelines for whale watching that have been developed with the encouragement of local communities, local commercial operators, and the media
-We not do chase or harass the dolphins and we minimize disturbance
-We position the boat in close proximity to the dolphin pod, then turn off the engine and it's up to the animals to then approach us, being very curious animals this doesn’t take much waiting ;)
-Maximum experience with minimum impact
-Encourage guests to use established paths and respect all wildlife
-Ensure we don't disturb the balance of marine environment by disposing of rubbish correctly
-We donate a portion of each tour to a non for profit research organisation - The Dolphin Project. Dedicated to the welfare and protection of dolphins worldwide. Founded by Ric O’Barry. Dolphin Project aims to educate the public on conservation of these animals and highlight the major issues of captivity, exploitation and slaughter of dolphins.
We also donate to the KI Bushfire Appeal. In Dec 2019 KI was devastated by fires that destroyed 83 homes, burnt 50% of the islands National Parks and killed over 30,000 Koalas. As well as leaving many wildlife injured and or orphaned. We make a donation on behalf of every guest to the KI Mayoral Bushfire Appeal and hope that we can ease the burden and help rehabilitation in some small way.

We like to reduce waste to keep the beautiful environment free of pollution in their waterways and land. Here are some examples...
-Minimize pollution by keeping the smallest footprint possible
-Take all rubbish and use existing toilets
-We urge our guests to keep the ocean free of plastic and waste
-Avoid using plastic bottles and we provide every guests with a water flask
-We don't use plastic straws or cutlery and supply each guest with a travel sustainable cutlery pack
-Throughout the tour, guests will learn and be educated on respect and conservation of both the marine life and wildlife and environment on KI
-We work electronically and encourage the guests not to print. Instead we ask them to download itineraries and trip bulletins to their devices.

We debrief our guests on the importance of water saving while on tour. When in hotels we encourage them to reuse towels where possible and only do clothes washing whenever you really need to. Guests are also encouraged to conserve energy by turning off lights when not in the rooms. We always recommend that our guests fly carbon neutral and are aware of trying to keep transport to a minimum when designing our tours. We do this by doing all our activities in KI and also transferring people in one whole group wherever possible. We like to ensure the that suppliers we use are environmentally aware and do their part to protect the environment. We send them our mission statement to show them our values and encourage them to make a positive difference.

People

We have done a lot of research on beautiful KI and have visited many local places, so we like to make sure our guests really get to know the place and support local as much as they can and spread tourism to those in need. Some examples of how we do this are…
-All Meals while on Tour with us on KI are sourced organically where possible and most food is fresh and grown or caught on the island. Wines, beers and Distilled Spirits are also locally sourced and produced on the island.

-Our trip bulletin includes examples of places guests can visit pre and post tour to support local

One of the issues happening in KI right now are the December Bushfires. KI was devastated by fires that destroyed 83 homes, burnt 50% of the islands National Parks and killed over 30,000 Koalas. As well as leaving many wildlife injured and or orphaned. We make a donation on behalf of every guest to the KI Mayrol Bushfire Appeal and hope that we can ease the burden and help rehabilitation in some small way. When on tour, we visit some of the places that were badly affected by the fires and have the opportunity to visit one of the wildlife orphanages to gain a true appreciation of the devastation.

As we contract other businesses for each portion of our tour, we do not personally hire staff except for our own guides and admin. We do however use companies that treat their staff very fairly, employ local staff and we voice our opinion if we feel that anyone has been treated unfairly.

We absolutely support the local arts and culture by….
-We encourage guests to visit local museums and galleries
-We encourage guests to buy local produce and locally handmade souvenirs such as the local arts and crafts
-To lead by example, we ourselves also purchase local arts and crafts

It is so important for us to respect all locals and all cultures whilst travelling. We also encourage our guests to do the same. It’s only polite to respect the people and countries you visit