Sir David Attenborough's Blue Planet III films a clever dolphin blocking coral crevices with sea sponges to trap fish

From the Newshound archive · first published 24 October 2026 · last updated 25 October 2026.

The bottlenose dolphin — named Gambara, from the Aboriginal word for clever — was observed by drone in the shallows of Shark Bay, Western Australia. She is estimated to be around 40 years old. Director Yoland Bosiger designed a 'stone fish camera' to capture the previously undocumented behaviour. The six-part BBC series arrives twenty-five years after the original Blue Planet and required four years of production.

Attenborough, narrating in his centenary year, went back and rewrote 'every single line' of the opening episode.

Series producer Lara Bickerton said she was moved to tears on first hearing his narration.

The series also features a Japanese octopus venturing onto land to hunt and a dugong caught in the act of passing dung.