Beautiful sightings

Today we had a bit of a mixed day with very different tours in the morning and afternoon. In the morning we went out in our catamaran and saw several groups of common dolphins spread out across a large area. As usual the dolphins were very curious and friendly and spent most of their time swimming with our boat and surfing the waves beside us. We had some really great moments with the common dolphins.

Our afternoon tour started with a surprise as we stopped to watch our first group of dolphins a flying fish suddenly came out of nowhere, flew straight towards our boat, skimmed past on of our passengers in the front and then landed back in the water on the other side of our boat.

This time we were on one of our smaller rubber boats and we had more luck with bottlenose dolphins and sperm whales (although we saw common dolphins too). First we  saw the bottlense dolphins and it was a really good group. There were at least 70 individuals, and as well as bowriding we got to see some social behaviour from several dolphins, such as the following dolphin playing with its belly up in the air:

The sperm whales were just as great. Our onshore lookout had informed us that there were up to 30 individuals together in a close group to the west of the island. So we went to the area off the coast of Mosteiros where the water quicky drops away to over 3000 meters deep (exactly the kind of place where sperm whales like to feed). After a bit of patience we were rewarded with several sperm whale sightings. At one stage there were up to 10 individuals travelling close together at the surface (and even more individuals further around us). We even got to see 2 breaches (unfortunately as is often the case we did not manage to capture photos of the amazing leaps). After travelling north with the group for a while we finally got to see a few tails as the whales went down on their deep dives, giving us a nice ending to our tour.

 

Risso's and common dolphins, and turtles

What a beautiful day today! Such a big improvement from the cloudy and drizzly day we had yesterday. To make today even better we had some really good dolphin sighting on our tour this morning. We went out on our catamaran and the sea and visibility conditions were really great. Just a few minutes after we left the marina we had a surpirse encounter with some Risso's dolphins. First we saw a mother and calf pair, then a bit further along were a few more individuals hanging around a small local fishing boat. We often see the Risso's dolphins near these boats and they are actually known to take squid from the fishermen's lines.

Further offshore we encountered many groups of common dolphins spread throughout the area. There were dolphins everywhere around us and many of them came to our boat to swim alongside and in front. The light conditions were really good so we got to see their beautiful markings really well.

The following photos give a slight idea of what it is like to see these playful photos from our catamarn. Ofcourse it is much better to be there and see it for yourself. The dolphins just love to accompany the boat, especially in front of the bow where we get an excellent view of them.

To complete the tour we also sighted this small loggerhead turtle:

Tomorrow morning and afternoon we have more tours booked, so we are looking forward to seeing what will be out there for us to see.

Playful common dolphins

Today was another dolphin day for us. We had a tour in the morning and saw a large playful group of common dolphins. Although the sea was a bit choppy for some of us, the dolphins really seemed to love it! As soon as it gets even a little bit wavy the dolphins often begin playing and surfing in the waves.

Gliding along the surface

Coming up with the wave...

...and leaping down again 

Dolphin weekend

This past weekend we had some really good dolphin sightings (common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins). Although we did not see any whales, the two tours we had were by no means a disappointment  It's always really nice to see the curious and playful dolphins that never seem to get sick of swimming around our boats. Here are some common dolphins photos that were taken during our tour on Saturday morning.
See also our Facebook page for video footage from this tour.

Risso's and common dolphins

This morning we had another great tour out on our catamaran. It did not take us long before we encountered a large playful group of common dolphins. The dolphins were very curious towards our boat, so they spent a lot of time simply swimming in front of our bow, giving all of our passengers a great look from the front of the boat.

As the wind picked up a bit during our encounter it created good wave-surfing conditions for the dolphins. We were lucky to see some fantastic jumps out of the waves, including playful leaps from some of the youngsters that were in the group (such as the dolphin in the front left in the following photo)...

We also had a surprise encounter with a small group of Risso's dolphins that we spotted on our way in to the coastline. Although these dolphins were are a bit more shy, with a bit of patience we got a few nice glimpes. The group of Risso's dolphins also inlcluded a young juvenile that was swimming alongside an adult that we could identify from previous encounters.

This weekend the weather and sea conditions are expected to improve, so we are looking forward to more great tours on on the sea.

Several groups of common dolphins

This morning we encountered several groups of common dolphins, followed by a more unusual sighting of a large fish sticking it's head out of the water. The fish was a largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus), a long slender fish species which is very common in these waters (see the photo below)

Sperm whales and dolphins for all to see

Today was a good day for us, as we had enough clients to go to the sea in both the morning and the afternoon. The day started a bit drizzly, but conditions soon cleared up and we managed to have 2 very good tours.

Morning:

We started off with a few small groups of common dolphins (including one playful group that had a very small calf) and two bottlenose dolphins. Later we headed a bit further offshore where we encountered a group of sperm whales. At one stage we were watching 7 or 8 sperm whales together on the surface. Some of our passengers were also lucky enough to see one of the sperm whales breach near our boat!

 Sperm whales

 Common dolphin

Afternoon:

In the afternoon we had to travel further to see the whales again, as they had moved about 10 nautical miles from where we last saw them in the morning. But the important thing was that we saw them again, and like the morning we had 7 or 8 whales up on the surface together. We also saw common dolphins again in the afternoon, so at the end of the day we were pleased to have been able to show all of our passengers some of the whales and dolphins of the Azores.

Spotted and common dolphins, and a man-o-war

This morning was just like summer again in São Miguel. We had great sea and weather conditions for our whale watching tour. Although we did not see any whales today we did see several groups of common dolphins and Atlantic spotted dolphins. The water must still be relatively warm for us to still be seeing the spotted dolphins here so late in the season. As well as the dolphins our passengers also got a really good look at a Portuguese man-o-war (shown by one of our biologists in the photo) grasping two boar fish. These fish have been sighted here in large numbers of the past few months, arriving dead on the gulf stream as part of a natural phenomenon. Even though the fish are dead they have been puncturing our rubber boats, so it's great for us to see the jellyfish feeding on the dead boar fish.

Watching common dolphins (note the dolphin jumping on the top right)

Atlantic spotted dolphin

January sighting statistics

Another month has passed so we have our latest sighting statistics. This January we have seen 8 cetacean species which is really good for this time of the year. In comparison in January last year we saw 3 species, and the year before only 1. This time of the year is normally difficult for us, as sea conditions are often not good and there are not many customers to go out. Although we have not been out much recently, again this year has been really good compared to previous years. It's been a really great winter for us and we are looking forward to an even better summer. In the following graph you can see the sighting frequency of the 8 species we sighted this month. As you can see we sighted common dolphins on 100% of the days that we went out!

 Sighting frequencies:

• Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) - 100%
• Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) - 36%
• Striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) - 9%
• Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) - 9%
• Pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) - 18%
• Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) - 36%
• Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) - 9%
• Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) - 9%

Pilot whales, striped dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins and common dolphins sighted in São Miguel

This morning our passengers were very lucky, as we had another great whale watching tour. We got to see 4 cetacean species: pilot whales, striped dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins and common dolphins. This winter we have had some exceptional sightings, in fact the spotted and striped dolphins are more summer species in this area so it was great to see them this time of the year (it was the first time in more than 3 months that we observed striped dolphins here). The following photo is of a large male pilot whale that passed close to our boat:

20 sperm whales sighted together at the surface!!

Today we encountered a very large group of sperm whales off the São Miguel coastline. At one stage our skipper counted about 20 sperm whales on the surface together! The sperm whale group was actually larger than the groups of common dolphins we also saw on our tour. The sperm whales were socialsing at the surface, so we got to see one breach (a whale jumping out of the water), grouping up behaviour, spyhopping (whales raising their heads out of the water) and a few very curious individuals passing close to our boat. The following photos only show a few of the sperm whales that we saw, but more can be seen in our video on our facebook page.

A summer day watching and swimming with dolphins

Today was just like summer. We have been extremely lucky with the weather conditions this winter. Most times it hasn't been like winter at all. This may be why the Atlantic spotted dolphins are still here, when they would normally leave for the winter around November or December. This morning we got to see (and swim with) at least 100 of these spotted dolphins, as well as several smaller groups of common dolphins. These photos taken from aboard our swimming boat show what a beautiful "summer" day we had here in the middle of winter.

Watching common dolphins

Atlantic spotted dolphins

Common dolphins on video

During the last few days we had a fairly long abscence from the sea due to low passenger numbers and bad weather conditions at times. But this morning we finally got out again on our catamaran and had encounters with several groups of our resident common dolphins. The following short video clips are just a taste of what we got to see this morning:

Fin whales, sperm whales, pilot whales and common dolphins sighted on yesterday's tour!!

Yesterday morning we had a fantastic tour with sightings of fin whales (a mother and calf), sperm whales, pilot whales and common dolpins. So many different species are not common for this time of the year, especially the sighting of the fin whales which normally pass here during the spring months, along with the other baleen whale species. The fin whale was actually our second baleen whale sighting for this month, as 3 days ago we also saw a sei whale. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera aboard yesterday, so if any of our passengers managed to get photos from the sightings we would be grateful if you could share them with us. 

Whale and dolphin watching aboard our catamaran

This morning we went whale watching on our catamaran "Cetus" for the first time since our previous summer season. Cetus is great for observation because it is spacious, perfect for watching dolphins bowriding in front and a good option for those passengers that are not comfortable going on our smaller boats in which we often have a very wet and bumpy ride. 

We ended up having a very good tour, with sightings of a large feeding group of Atlantic spotted dolphins, a sperm whale and common dolphins on our way back to shore. We got to see the sperm whale raise its tail to go on a dive, and from its tail we could recognise the whale from our catalogue of individuals. This whale was named "Piet" by one of our previous passengers that kindly sent us an identification photo from their sighting. Piet was first photographed by us here in 2008 and before today was last seen in September 2010. It's great to see whales such as Piet returning to this area.

Sperm whale "Piet" sighted this morning