In the Community
Community Support
loving where we live
Sea West is a community business. We are passionate locals, who are immensely proud of our beautiful State of Western Australia and the various locations we operate from.
We build connections and share our love of these places in many ways, as we want our local communities to be the best they can be. We give support to a host of important charities and community groups, in particular, those whose focus is aligned with our business activities.
We invite you to read about some of our community support programs here.
Community Connections
Local Education
Sea West provides free Mandurah Marine World Education sessions to local schools, kindergartens and childcare centres. We do this to educate young members of our community about the importance of caring for our waterways.
Fun incursions feature our Mandurah Cruises’ mascot ~ Dolly Dolphin, teaching students about our waterways and marine life, fun dolphin facts, sustainability and the prevention of marine degradation. We share a story about dolphin rescue through a local book which is donated to the school.
If you would like to arrange a visit to your school, please email us.
rotary club support
Every festive season, we run cruises in Mandurah to showcase the magical Christmas lights of decorated canal homes. It is the largest display of Christmas lights in Western Australia. Each of our Christmas Lights’ cruises help to raise money for local community groups and charities, through Rotary Club of Mandurah. A floating ‘Wishing Well’ is set up in one of the main canals, which our cruise vessels visit during each tour, for guests to make gold coin donations.
Last year’s campaign raised $23,384, taking the grand total of Wishing Well fundraising to over $250,000 since the campaign began in 2008.
Find out more and see the list of community groups supported by the Wishing Well proceeds, here.
rescue resources
The Mandurah Volunteer Dolphin Rescue Group, as part of Estuary Guardians, are on the water almost every day, donating their time and money for the protection of Mandurah’s dolphin population. They monitor the dolphins in the Peel-Harvey Estuary and surrounding coastal waters, checking the health of the dolphins and responding to calls from the public and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation & Attractions, attending to stranded, sick, injured, entangled or deceased dolphins. Sea West works closely with these groups, providing crew, vessels and resources when required.
We also support the development and distribution of the ‘Mandurah Fin Book’, which helps the public identify dolphins by their dorsal fin.
To find out more about Mandurah’s dolphins and the great work being done by Estuary Guardians, click here.
dolphin research
We are one of the 3 major sponsors of PhD research into the Mandurah dolphin population at Murdoch University’s Cetacean Research Unit.
We work closely with the researchers to share valuable information, including our daily dolphin sightings. This is the biggest research project to date on dolphins that reside in the Peel-Harvey Estuary.
Click here for more information on the project or follow on Facebook for updates.
shorebird count
In Mandurah, we play a key role in supporting the Peel-Yalgorup Wetland’s protective status as a site of ‘international significance’ under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971). An official ‘count’ of migratory shorebirds is conducted annually, which we donate a Mandurah Cruises’ vessel, fuel, skipper and an Environmental Leader to assist with.
This year, around 70 volunteers participated in the count, covering 26,000 hectares across the estuaries and lakes of the Peel-Yalgorup System.
To read more about this important project and Sea West’s support, click here.
camp quality
Every year, on the opening night of Mandurah Cruises’ Christmas Lights’ season, we donate our vessels to Camp Quality, in support of children and families living with cancer. We conduct a 1-hour Christmas Lights Cruise, where up to 150 seats are donated to the group across 3 vessels.
Santa and his helper elf also join families on this complimentary cruise.
Coastal clean-ups
Mandurah Cruises supports local clean-up group, Coastal Waste Warriors, which hosts monthly clean-ups at different beaches and estuary locations in Mandurah. We donate prizes for a volunteer reward raffle at each event and our Environmental Leader and crew regularly attend events as a volunteers.
We are also part of a Clean Waterways working group, run by Estuary Guardians, which was formed following the death of an 18-month-old dolphin due to fishing line entanglement.
sustainability initiatives
As a cruise operator, all our vessels are free of single use plastics. We use biodegradable products (bin bags, sugar cane bowls, paper straws etc) and reusable products (wine glasses). We also invite guests to bring their own mug for particular cruises, such as in Mandurah, providing complimentary bottomless tea and coffee to encourage the use of keep cups.
Bins are installed on all our boats specifically for cans and bottles, as part of WA’s Containers for Change campaign. These recyclables are collected fortnightly and we donate proceeds we collect to a host of community projects we support throughout the year. During Christmas Lights in Mandurah, the proceeds are donated to the Mandurah Rotary Wishing Well.
pride & LGBTQ support
Each year, we proudly sponsor a ‘Pride Cruise’ in Mandurah, celebrating International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia (IDAHOBIT).
This is a 2-hour cruise by Pride in Peel, where guests enjoy music by a live DJ, drag queen performances and watching Mandurah’s bridge transform to rainbow colours for the evening. Mandurah Cruises proudly sponsors the event annually.
Other LGBTQ community support includes major sponsorship of PrideFEST WA and working with visiting media groups such as Husbands That Travel @husbands.thattravel and others.