Futurismo at WhaleFest 2014

On March 14-16th Futurismo took part in WhaleFest which is the world's largest whale and dolphin festival. For the third time this event was held in Brighton, England and again Futurismo was present and sponsored the virtual whale watching tour. This year we kick started the event with a new campaign - "The Long Swim to Freedom". This campaign highlighted the plight of dolphins (especially orcas/killer whales) in captivity. We marched along the waterfront with banners and then, in front of a large audience of supporters and curious people passing by, we released a life-sized model orca into the sea. The release was led by famous orca researcher Dr. Ingrid Visser who came all the way from New Zealand and braved the chilly water to guide the model orca into deeper water. See our video of the orca release HERE and a BBC news report HERE.

During the weekend thousands of visitors met at WhaleFest at the Hilton Metropole Hotel which is the exact same place where governments gathered in 1982 to suspend commercial whaling after the "Save the Whales" campaign. We had 2 busy days in which the public could visit the various stalls from different whale watching companies and engage in a range fun-filled educational activities related to whales and dolphins and the marine environment in general. One of these activities was the virtual whale watching tour which was sponsored by Futurismo for the second year in a row. This virtual tour gave the public a taste of whale watching in the Azores and how we run this activity in a sustainable and responsible way with respect for the animals in their natural environment. 

As well as the campaign for orcas in captivity this year we also had a strong focus on raising awareness of the critically endangered Maui's dolphin in New Zealand. It is estimated there are only about 50 individuals of this species left in the wild, caused mainly by their entanglement in gillnets. The support and number of people present this year were mind-blowing and we are proud to have helped raise money for the plight of dolphins in captivity and Maui's dolphins. Even after the event has ended we will continue our support and remain partners of both Whale Watch International (a partnership to promote responsible whale and dolphin watching worldwide) and WCA (World Cetacean Alliance).

Futurismo's stand at WhaleFest 2014

Come whale watching with us today!

Come join us on a virtual whale watch tour!

Virtual whale watching with Futurismo

Sperm whale watching in the setting of São Miguel, Azores

Dr. Ingrid Visser talking about orcas in captivity

Huge numbers of people gathered around the main stage to hear the presentations

Looking down at the mainstage

The number is shocking. Let's put an end to this!

Life-sized humpback whale model that you can go inside

Lining up to go inside the inflatable humpback whale

Entering the humpback whale "Nile"

A potential future marine biologist

Making education fun with interesting facts and cool objects like whale baleen and bones

Skull of a Sowerby's beaked whale

The longest tooth in the world - a narwhal tusk!

Risso's dolphin model - a resident species in the Azores

Basking shark model - another species that can be seen in the Azores

Learning how to be a marine biologist - matching whale tail photos (a technique called photo-ID)

Each cross represents the death of a cetacean (dolphins, belugas and orcas) in captivity)

Many dolphins and whales that died in captivity were never named because most die at a young age before they receive a name

One of the many dedicated volunteers at WhaleFest helping to raise awareness of threats to marine life

Moby Dick was also present at WhaleFest this year

Well-known bottlenose dolphins and a mysterious whale

Today we played with a well-known group of bottlenose dolphins, we know at least two individuals very well "Egípcio" and "Submarine". They were great fun, a group of about 80 dolphins, as they were jumping a lot around us, bowriding and wakeriding. After we left the dolphins we headed further out to search and we came across a fishing boat that had seen a whale a while ago. We followed the instructions from the fishermen aboard the boat, but we never saw the whale. We had very little information, and if this was a fin whale, we know that even if they swim in one direction at the surface they might turn and come up anywhere. We searched in one area, and our lookout was helping us scanning a larger area, but unfortunately no whale to be seen. And we had to turn back home.

Photos from today: 

"Hello" from a bottlenose dolphin

"Submarine" and a juvenile

Social dolphins and many Cory's shearwater coming back to the Azores

After a few days of bad weather, today the rain and the wind gave us a small break and allowed us to go out again to the ocean. We left Ponta Delgada early in the morning with the sun shining upon us and with three boats containing people eager to see some species of cetaceans. Our lookout (vigia) had spotted several groups of dolphins so he guided us towards the first group of them, a group of about 30 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) which were spread out in the area, and as usual, really social and interested in us. After enjoying the playful dolphins, we drove to another group spotted by our "vigia", a group of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), which were more quiet and social than the other dolphins, although we could observe them very close to our boats, while bowriding and surfing the waves. Almost at the end of the trip we spotted a Northern gannet (Morus bassanus), which despite is kind of a common species of bird during this time of the year, it usually avoids boats presence.

 

Bottlenose dolphins surfacing

Bottlenose dolphin behind our boat Bulo

Common dolphins beside our boat João vigia

Northern gannet (Morus bassanus)

In the afternoon, we had again three boats, but the clouds showed up reducing the visibility that is essential to our lookouts. Nevertheless, we could make it and we could re-encounter the same groups of bottlenose dolphins and two groups of common dolphins. The common dolphins were again really interested in us, and our tourists could enjoy them despite the weather conditions. Besides these encounters, one of our boats found a silver scabbardfish (Lepidopus caudatus), as happened a few days ago.

Today's best news is that the Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea), which Azorean population represents about 60-70% of the world population, keep arriving from their annual migration routes, and now they are already one of the most common sea birds around these islands, since during the lasts days their numbers have highly increased. 

More good news is that the water becoming very rich in food such as algae ( as we could see by the water's green colouration) which feeds the rest of the food chain. It is undoubtedly a good signal for the presence of baleen whales... will we see them on the next trip?

A bottlenose dolphin looking at one of our boats

 A fishing boat
 

                                                     Cory´s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea)

     

 

 

 A big group of Cory´s sheawater flying close to the shore

 

 

The beautiful landscape of Mosteiros

Common dolphin under the green water footage

Curious dolphins and shy beaked whales

It was a hazy start to the morning, but the sea was calm and flat as we left Ponta Delgada. Our first encounter, only minutes into the trip, was with a group of common dolphins. This group was small and spaced out over a large area, but nonetheless a pleasure to watch. As our boat moved on in search of other cetaceans we spotted a loggerhead turtle in front of us, however it dove underwater as we approached it. We cruised along the mirror-like water until we came across a pod of bottlenose dolphins. They were very curious and came close to the boat. Whilst snapping some ID photos we noticed that this was the same pod of dolphins that we saw yesterday, and we know this by recognising the same dorsal fins and patterns on different individuals in the pod. We observed these dolphins for a while then continued to travel east towards the town of Ponta Garça. After travelling on the open ocean for a long while without seeing anything except the gorgeous view of the São Miguel coastline we decided to turn back but travel closer to the coast. To our delight we spotted beaked whales in front of us rising gently above the water to breathe. This is an incredibly rare sight to see in the Azores as beaked whales are very shy, elusive creatures and only spend about 8% of their time on the surface of the ocean and for that reason are not usually spotted. We sailed slowly towards them so not to scare them, and managed to see their dorsal fins rise twice above the surface until they dove back down underneath the shimmering water. Although we did not get close, we could see their brown colour very well which indicates they may have been Blainville's beaked whales. We knew we would not sight these whales again for a long time because they can dive to at least 2000 m underwater and will stay there for at least 85 minutes.

We took a detour around Vila Franca Island on our return to the marina, enjoying the rocky landscape of this volcanic crater and nature reserve. On the island we spotted yellow-legged gulls, rock pigeons, red crabs and, soaring above, the endemic Azorean Buzzard, which nests on the island. Another pod of common dolphins were spotted as we drew closer to Ponta Delgada, these ones were a lot more curious about the boat; swimming underneath it and bowriding. There were also one or two calves in the group keeping close to their mothers. Seeing dolphin calves at this time of year is not too common as they normally give birth in the summer when the sea is warmer. All-in-all, a lovely day was had on the sea with three different cetacean species sighted and plenty of other wildlife to appease the eyes as well.

 Common dolphin underwater - together with a colony of salps

Cory's shearwater

Bottlenose dolphins

ID photo showing marks in the dorsal fins that we use to identify bottlenose dolphins

Beaked whale - a rare sighting

Common dolphins - mother and calf

Common dolphin off the coast of Vila Franca do Campo

Common dolphins off Vila Franca Islet

Vila Franca Islet

 Observing Vila Franca Islet

Yellow-legged gull

Azorean Buzzard