Since 2017, a dolphin called Bubbles has been seen near Lady Elliot Island; from 2021 to 2025, researchers documented him chasing fish until they regurgitated food

Off Lady Elliot Island in Australia's southern Great Barrier Reef, a wild bottlenose dolphin has found an unusual way to eat. Instead of hunting fish on his own, he chases them until they vomit, then eats what comes up. This behavior was recorded by researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast who published their findings on September 13, 2026, in the journal Ecology and Evolution. Bubbles, a dolphin spotted in waters around the island since 2017, has a notched dorsal fin and a scar on his right side, which can be used to identify him. The discovery came from the university’s long-term ecological monitoring project, Leaf to Reef, around Lady Elliot Island, supported by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s Reef Islands Initiative.

How Bubbles turns another fish’s meal into his own

Unlike common bottlenose dolphins, which typically hunt socially, Bubbles hunts alone. The researchers say each chase was a solo effort, even when other dolphins were nearby. His behavior follows a clear pattern. He begins by scanning a school of bigeye trevally, moving his head from side to side, using echolocation. After choosing a fish, usually one that has just fed, he separates it from the school and begins a close chase, following its every move. The chase lasts until the fish, most likely from stress, vomits and Bubbles quickly eats the regurgitated food as the fish swims away. Between 2021 and 2025, researchers documented 20 occasions when Bubbles attempted this tactic; the fish actually regurgitated and successfully fed on it 11 of those times. In a 30-minute session, he has been observed to repeat the chase up to ten times. Researchers used photo identification to confirm it was the same dolphin each time.


The sounds behind the chase

When hunting, Bubbles makes two kinds of sounds: sharp echolocation clicks and short, low tones lasting from about a third of a second to two seconds. Researchers have two working ideas about what these sounds do: the low tones may stress the fish into vomiting, while the clicks may help Bubbles size up which fish has the fullest belly before he even starts the chase. However, this theory has not yet been proven. The researchers consider the findings a hypothesis since the audio recording was made during a single encounter. Asia Armstrong, a marine biologist and co-author of the study, says dolphins may use echolocation to detect small differences in fish size and choose their prey.

Stealing food is a known trick in nature, just rare in the ocean

Scientists call this kind of behavior kleptoparasitism, where one animal steals food that has already been caught by another. It is found in a lot of species. For example, hyenas steal kills from lions, and gulls steal food from other birds. It is especially well known in frigatebirds. The study, 'Kleptoparasitic Behavior of the Magnificent Frigatebird: Sex Bias and Success,' published in The Condor, showed how frigatebirds chased blue-footed boobies until they gave up their catch, sometimes even regurgitating it. Such cases are far less documented underwater, mainly because it's a lot more difficult for scientists to closely follow a chase for long stretches down below the surface.

What's unusual about Bubbles is where he lives. Kleptoparasitism has been reported often in birds and terrestrial animals, but the authors of the study say this is one of the most detailed reports of the behavior ever observed in a dolphin, or any cetacean anywhere. Jason Bruck, a dolphin behavioral scientist at Stephen F. Austin State University who was not involved in the research, said the repeated sightings of the same dolphin doing this was compelling evidence that it was more than simply opportunistic feeding.

One dolphin, many questions unanswered

This entire study is based on one animal. The researchers acknowledge that limitation directly. They cannot yet tell if Bubbles is one strange individual, or if other dolphins nearby, or elsewhere, use the same trick without anyone noticing yet. Some populations of bottlenose dolphins are known for highly individual echolocation-based foraging strategies, according to a 2019 paper in Royal Society Open Science titled 'Behavioural laterality in foraging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus).' It is this sort of adaptability, the Ecology and Evolution authors suggest, that could have made it possible for Bubbles to develop this trick in the first place.

For now, Bubbles keeps coming back to the same reef, chasing the same species of fish, using a hunting method that no other dolphin has been recorded doing quite this way. Researchers say closer, longer-term monitoring, including newer tools such as underwater drones combined with underwater surveys, could help reveal whether this type of behavior is truly rare, or just hard to film. Until then, Bubbles remains the only dolphin on record with this particular trick up his fin.