The North easterly winds today did not stop us from having fun at sea! We went out and our day started off with slightly strong wind and rough waves. But when we got to the area that was protected by the mountain of Lagoa do Fogo, we had the perfect sea! And the sea was FULL of common dolphins!
Everywhere we went, we had small groups of common dolphins, even when we were traveling to another area. We had about 20-30 dolphins bow-riding our boat. Eventually, we could also hear the dolphins from the boat, it was a high-frequency whistle. The dolphins were socializing and super curious today.
The Cory's Shearwaters were also present today!
Then at some point we found something floating at the surface. It looked like a buoy, so we went and had a look. It indeed turned out to be a buoy that probably floated away from a harbour or a boat. We, however, did not bring it back to land with us because it already had a mini ecosystem growing there. The buoy was fully grown with barnacles and gooseneck barnacles.
We normally collect plastic and floating trash when we encounter it at sea because, particularly plastic, is a problem to the survival of the animals in the sea. But when it is too heavy, or when there are too many organisms attached to the piece with fish swimming around it, like this buoy that we found here, we leave it in the sea to keep the organisms alive.
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