Dolphins in Australia have been ‘missing human interaction’ so much that they have been bringing gifts ashore for those who do visit them, a Queensland cafe which feeds the pod has claimed.

One male humpback dolphin, called Mystique, has been bringing ashore an increasingly generous selection of items amid the coronavirus lockdown, local media reported.

Mystique, 29, now brings volunteers at Barnacles Café and Dolphin Feeding centre in Tin Can Bay a daily selection of gifts, including barnacled bottles, shells, wood, coral and other items from the sea bed. He had previously been know to occasionally bring ‘presents’ ashore and was never trained to do so.

But in a Facebook post, the cafe on the Cooloola Coast explained: ‘The pod has been bringing us regular gifts, showing us how much they’re missing the public interaction and attention. Since the restrictions have eased we have been able to reopen the dolphin feeding & cafe.

‘Put a smile on someone’s face and come spend some time and feed these beautiful creatures, they are definitely missing you all.’

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Others have suggested that the behaviour is not necessarily a result of ‘missing’ humans, but could be an attempt to get more food.

Volunteer Lyn McPherson, who feeds the dolphins, told ABC: ‘(He) brings in objects on his rostrum, or beak, and then he carefully presents them to us.

‘What we have to do is give him a fish in return… We haven’t trained him, but he has trained us to do this. We swear he has a collection waiting to bring to us.’

The Covid-19 restrictions meant that visitors have been unable to mix with the dolphins for weeks.

Volunteers say Mystique is the only one of the seven-dolphin pod to give the gifts and is thought to have first appeared in the area in 1991 with his Mum. He has distinctive marking from fights with other dolphins and a bull shark attack.

Barry McGovern, an expert in dolphin behaviour, suggested it was possible the dolphins were giving gifts because they missed humans, but unlikely.

He told 7 News: ‘Nothing surprises me with dolphins and their behaviour anymore.

‘They do everything – they use tools, they have culture, they have something similar to names in signature whistles.

‘In all likelihood, they probably don’t miss humans per se. They probably miss a free meal and the routine.’

Others speculated online that the creatures might be telling humans to clean up the ocean, while Mr McGovern added it could be a ‘play-like behaviour’ or out of boredom.

The centre partially reopened on Saturday, May 16.

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MORE: Dolphins pictured frolicking off Yorkshire coast

Manufacturing of “Neighbours,” the long-running Australian TV cleaning soap opera is ready to restart later this week, regardless of the coronavirus outbreak inflicting a lot of the nation to stay in lockdown.

The present’s producer, Fremantle Media stated that its filming strategies can be distinctly completely different from pre-virus practices, and that it might be capable to stick inside authorities tips on well being and security.

“(On Monday) we returned from a scheduled manufacturing break, initially two weeks that we prolonged to 3 weeks to provide our manufacturing crew time to refine our manufacturing mannequin to fulfill the gov’t tips re. well being & security and social distancing. We can be filming with a small unit this Thursday after which full manufacturing resumes Monday,” stated Fremantle in a press release.

“As a result of fashion of our present and the huge dimension of our manufacturing studios and again lot, we realized we’re ready to renew filming in a approach that protects everybody’s well being and nonetheless delivers the ‘Neighbours’ viewers know and love.”

Social distancing can be achieved by spreading everybody out and having much less individuals in any atmosphere at any given time. The manufacturing websites have additionally been divided into three manufacturing areas and one management space, with no crew crossover, in order that if there are any incidents, the actions of anybody impacted could be simply traced.

New digicam positions and artistic modifying will employed to make sure this has minimal influence on display.

Fremantle stated that it has labored carefully on the plan, and that no stress has been placed on solid and crew to return, if they aren’t comfy. Particular measures have been taken for older workers, and the corporate says it’s prepared to make additional changes.

“Communication and collaboration is the important thing.  The response has been overwhelmingly optimistic with everybody eager to work and produce the present all of us love a lot,” stated a spokesman.

Set in a fictional suburb of Melbourne, the place it charts the private {and professional} lives of its residents, “Neighbours” has been on air virtually constantly since 1985. Whereas its broadcast house has modified, it has not deviated from its 22-minutes per episode, 5 episodes per week schedule. It’s at present broadcast on Peach (previously Eleven), and has been licensed to broadcasters in over 60 international locations. It’s understood that it might have run out of recent episodes by June had manufacturing not restarted.

Margot Robbie, Man Pearce, and Russell Crowe have all appeared on the present earlier than attaining worldwide stardom.

The coronavirus shutdown has halted the Australian movie and TV business in its tracks. Some 119 movies and TV exhibits have been suspended, together with two Marvel motion pictures and Baz Luhrmann’s untitled Elvis mission which was barely per week away from manufacturing when star Tom Hanks was confirmed as contaminated with COVID-19. Australia now has 6,547 instances, and 67 deaths.

Australia’s federal authorities on Wednesday unveiled a package deal of economic reduction measures meant to assist the movie and tv industries climate the affect of the coronavirus outbreak. The measures have a money worth of $57.7 million (A$91 million).

Free-to-air TV and radio channels are to obtain $26 million (A$41 million) of advantages as the federal government waives the annual payment for utilizing spectrum. FTA channels and subscription -TV drama channels may also not have to fulfill the nationwide quotas which specify minimal quantities of Australian drama, kids’s and documentary content material to be broadcast in 2020, although they are going to nonetheless be anticipated to fulfill the general 55% native content material quota.

Moreover, the federal authorities pays for as much as $31.7 million (A$50 million) of public curiosity journalism delivered by industrial tv, newspaper and radio companies in regional Australia, by means of a Public Curiosity Information Gathering (PING) program. Of the whole $8.50 million (A$13.four million) is new cash.

“Broadcasters and newspapers face vital monetary stress and COVID-19 has led to a pointy downturn in promoting income throughout the entire sector,” mentioned Paul Fletcher, federal Minister for Communications, Cyber Security and the Arts. “We’re performing to supply pressing short-term help to the media sector. On the identical time, we’re progressing our December 2019 dedication to seek the advice of on the longer term framework to help Australian tales on our screens.”

As a part of the session course of, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and federal movie funding physique Display Australia issued a doc providing totally different choices. These are prone to be mentioned till the top of the 12 months.

“Regulated free-to-air broadcasters are competing with unregulated digital platforms and video streaming companies. It has been evident for a while – and the COVID-19 disaster has made it much more apparent – that this isn’t sustainable,” mentioned Fletcher. “These preparations threaten the sustainability of tv broadcasters – and in flip the sustainability of the movie and tv content material manufacturing sector.”

“We have to re-emerge from COVID-19 with a regulatory framework suited to the twenty-first century that acknowledges right this moment’s aggressive panorama,” mentioned Fletcher.

The suspension of the drama quotas was contested by commerce physique, Display Producers Australia. “These onerous cuts have the potential to at worst cripple Australia’s manufacturing business and at finest snuff the alternatives for a rebound for a lot of our sector at a time when it’s going through a really actual battle for survival,” mentioned the group’s CEO Matthew Deaner.

However the stay-at-home orders which can be in impact nationwide make it troublesome for brand new productions in the meanwhile.

“COVID-19 has successfully halted manufacturing of Australian display content material, making it unimaginable for free-to-air and subscription tv companies to fulfill Australian content material obligations,” mentioned Fletcher.

• Singapore’s InfoComm Media Growth Authority is to assist firms and freelancers by means of initiatives, partnerships and coaching initiatives. These embrace commissioning $5.63 million (S$Eight million) of public service content material by means of MediaCorp, Viddsee, and newspapers to property group Singapore Press Holdings. Self-employed folks and freelancers can get a grant of as much as $2,110 (S$3,000) for coaching by means of the IMDA. Movie exhibitors and distributors can apply to have their new and renewed licenses waived. Classification charges for movie and video video games are additionally to be waived till additional discover. The IMDA may also speed up its Capabilities Partnership Program, beneath which native firms workforce up with multinationals together with WarnerMedia and Viacom to provide authentic regional content material. IMDA says the CPP may benefit 80 to 100 Singaporean media firms over the subsequent 12 months.