Oceanic delight: Dolphins fight and play with octopuses in the waters off Western Australia, throwing them into the air!

Stunning photographs have captured a dolphin frolicking with an octopus and tossing it into the air with its snout as it swims in the ocean.

In one image, the playful dolphins appear to have the octopus completely in their mouth, but then toss it into the air, with water droplets flying everywhere.

The photographs, taken in Mandurah, a coastal town in Western Australia, are by PhD candidate Krista Nicholson.

An image of the bottlenose dolphin playing in the water with the octopus, throwing it sideways into the air.

Ms Nicholson is part of the Cetacean Research Unit (MUCRU) at Murdoch University.

Nicholson told the Mandurah Coastal Times he had seen dolphins engage in an “octopus release” before, but it was unusual to take photographs.

“It’s not unusual for dolphins to do this, but it’s not something that happens regularly,” he said.

‘We haven’t seen them (Mandurah dolphins) actually consume an octopus.

“But there are records from other parts of the world of dolphins playing with octopuses.”

PhD candidate Krista Nicholson said dolphins can occasionally be found launching octopuses

Ms Nicholson is part of the Mandurah Dolphin Research Project, which began in January and is studying bottlenose dolphins using Peel-Harvey and adjacent coastal waters in Western Australia.

The project involves characterizing population size and structure, habitat use and genetic connectivity among dolphins, using estuarine and coastal areas.

The MUCRU has been studying bottlenose dolphins in the Bunbury and Perth area for almost a decade.

Ms Nicholson said they had never seen a Mandurah dolphin eat an octopus.