Rachel Smolker, one of the founders of the Shark Bay Dolphin Research Project was told in the mid-80s about a dolphin north of Monkey Mia with a horrendous growth on its nose and half a tail fluke. Not believing this fisher’s tale, she thought little of it. But, a year later, in the location the fisher described, she too, saw the dolphin with the growth and half a tail fluke. As she watched, she noticed that the dolphin managed to change its growth, and at closer inspection, she discovered that this was in fact, a marine sponge. She named the dolphin Half-fluke and soon found that others were carrying sponges too. About one year later, Half-fluke had a calf, Demi. Although Half-fluke and Demi were seen regularly, only Half-fluke carried a sponge. In 1989, when Demi was nearly 3 years old, I saw her wearing a tiny sponge on her beak, conical shaped like her mother’s, only much much smaller. She dived like her mother (flukes out) and seemed to be foraging like her. When she went back to nursing position (infant position), she dropped her sponge. Half-fluke had two more calves after Demi, but both died. Demi continued to sponge-carry after weaning and often associated with her aging mother. A year after Half-fluke’s death, Demi had her first calf, Dodger, before her 13th birthday. Brooke Sargeant and I were very interested in Dodger and would observe her several times each year to see when she would pick up her first sponge. Soon after Dodger’s third birthday, she did. It was such an exciting event that a reporter-writer on our boat fell down and nearly knocked the rest of us off the boat. Dodger, now weaned, is still carrying sponges and Demi has just had her second calf. The tradition continues….