In what can only be described as a youngster doing the 'puff, puff, pass', West Australian dolphins may be using blowfish - or 'blowies' - to get high, scientists have found.

Murdoch University researcher Krista Nicholson, who monitors dolphins occupying the Peel-Harvey coastal waters off Mandurah, said there were several records of them interacting with blowfish in estuaries and coastal waters around the world.

The young dolphin Huubster tosses a blowfish in the air. Credit:Mandurah Dolphin Research Project

She said that in Australia, scientists had seen juveniles mouthing blowies in the Leschenault estuary in WA's South West and a sub-adult dolphin carrying an inflated blowie for a few hours in the Kimberley.

Blowies have a lethal toxin called tetrodotoxin, present in their skin, flesh and internal organs.