A majestic group of fin whales

Once again we have seen fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) during our morning trip. It has been almost a month observing this species: 28 days in a row!  But today it has been a really special encounter. 

We started with two individuals a few miles off Ponta Delgada and then we found a small lonely calf swimming in different directions, in such a way we could guess that it was feeding. After a while we decided to change to an area where we found our main dish of the day: a group of at least eight fin whales swimming and surfacing in front of us. First we found a few whales gathering together with other individuals, eventually forming the final group. We all enjoyed with this sighting, since all the group was really quiet and confident. We could even smell and hear the blows of many of them! In total, we could count 14 whales during the whole trip. 

On our way back we found also a small group of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), which were curious and bowriding close to the boat.

During all these encounters we recorded data of each sighting, recording the species, the size of the group, the behaviour and so on. We have also been taking pictures for our photo-identification research studies.

Photos from today:

Our biologist Maite showing the pictures to the tourists

Fin whale close to Ponta Delgada

Fin whale surfacing

The blow from a fin whale almost touching the clouds

Cory's shearwater

Two fin whales blowing at the same time

Our whale watcher with a fin whale

Two fin whales

Our biologist Albert recording data

Plenty of whales, dolphins and a leatherback turtle

Wow, what a day! We had blows more or less everywhere and we had great encounters with fin whales today. During one of our encounters we had four fin whales surrounding our catamaran Cetus. And in the middle of all this whale-craziness we had a rare sighting of a leatherback turtle. The leatherback turtle is the largest marine turtle in the world reaching 3 meter and can weight as much as 900 kg! It sure is a giant of the sea even if its much smaller then the whales. We also encountered common dolphins, a group of many small and curious juveniles and calves sticking their heads out of the water looking at us.

In the afternoon we resighted curious whales, once again fin whales. we lost count of how many we had around us, at least 3 but maybe 6 whales or more. We also encountered the same common dolphin group as we could recognise one of the dorsal fins. And a group of bottlenose dolphins very close to the shoreline, were it was only 20 meter deep. They came up nicely together and diving together, most likely feeding in the shallow water.

Video of the bottlenose dolphins in the afternoon

Photos from today:

Fin whale

Two fin whale diving together

Fin whale on its side

Leatherback turtle

Leatherback turtle diving

The special common dolphin dorsal fin that we recognised from the morning

Curious common dolphin juvenile looking at us

Bottlenose dolphins approaching our catamaran Cetus

Fin whale poo

Fin whales keep us company

One more wonderful day with fin whales here in the Azores. The whales are not letting us down, as so far May has been 100% fin whales. Today we ended up with two fin whales, but there were 3 more inshore from us, and further out our skipper and our lookout saw more blows as well. Common dolphins also kept us company today, a group of about 150 dolphins joined up and played around us. We witnessed a lot of mating and both flukes and heads sticking out of the water. Happy news for us, as we see more baby dolphins we will get more dolphins for next year. Our swimming boat swam with both common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins.

In the afternoon we resighted fin whales and common dolphins but also false killer whales. 

Photos from the morning:

One of the fin whales surfacing

Fin whale

Our skipper Verissimo picking up a Portuguese man-o-war

Portuguese man-o-war

Common dolphin

Fin whales in São Miguel

This year in São Miguel island we have reached a record of fin whale encounters for the Azores archipelago. We have seen fin whales every single day during the last 25 days straight! The fin whale is the second largest animal in the world, reaching about 27 m in length. Every year during the spring months these whales, together with many blue whales and sei whales, migrate past the Azores on their way to their feeding grounds in the cold north Atlantic. Every year we seem to be encountering more of these whales, and we are very lucky to be seeing more fin whales than ever here in São Miguel this year. This morning we encountered 3 different fin whales travelling together. On top of this we also encountered a group of common dolphins and a small loggerhead turtle. On top of our usual seabird sightings (Cory's shearwater, yellow-legged gull and common tern) we had a more rare sighting of a great skua.

Fin whale head surfacing with great force!

Fin whale curving its back to go on a dive

Fin whale poo

Common dolphin juvenile

Great skua


Two of our zodiacs today, Bulo and Alfredo


Goose barnacles on a life jacket we found drifting around 

False killer whales, fin whales and dolphin encounters continue

Our great dolphin and whale encounters are continuing here in São Miguel, Azores. This morning we resighted the false killer whales from yesterday. We had a great encounter from aboard our catamaran. The false killer whales were travelling at speed and sometimes leaping clear of the water, together with their calves. We enjoyed watching them bowriding right in from of our boat for a while. Our two boats went in different directions in the morning and both ended up encountering several different fin whales (bringing us to a record of 24 days straight with fin whales!) We also came across a group of common dolphins outside of Ponta Delgada.

In the afternoon we encountered another fin whale close to the marina. After some nice sightings of this large whale we tried to go for the false killer whales again, but they were moving too fast away from the island. Nevertheless, we encountered a couple of nice groups of common dolphins and ended the tour with a loggerhead turtle.

Photos from the morning:

False killer whale leaping

False killer whales

False killer whale

Fin whale just outside of Ponta Delgada marina

Our zodiac boat with common dolphins bowriding

Fin whale - the client on the zodiac this morning know how surprising this was!

 Fin whale

Common dolphins bowriding our catamaran Cetus

Photos from the afternoon:

Fin whale

Fin whale

Fin whale blow

Common dolphin

Cetus

High five

Today we all enjoyed a whole day of good weather with many cetaceans. In the morning we had an amazing trip observing 5 different species. We started with at least four fin whales and one blue whale, surfacing really close to our boats. After a while, we decided to go closer to land, where we enjoyed a small group of common dolphins. But then we decided to try our luck by looking for the most special sighting of the day, a big group of false killer whales. There were more than a hundred individuals, mixed with a few bottlenose dolphins.

In the afternoon, we saw three species of cetaceans, as well as a few loggerhead turtles swimming and feeding on mauve stinger jellyfish. We started the trip with many blows of fin whales all around. We saw a total of ten different fin whales! Then we found again the false orcas. This afternoon they were really social and curious swimming really close of our boats to the delight of our tourists. We took many underwater videos which are going to be uploaded on the next days. On our way back we could enjoy the company of a small group of common dolphins.
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Underwater video of the false killer whales - listen for their wistles

 False killer whale surfacing with something in its mouth

Fin whale surfacing 

Blue whale

Orcas in São Miguel again

This morning we received a great surprise from our lookout - he spotted orcas south of São Miguel island! The orca, also known as killer whale, is a species we do not see often in the Azores and we can never predict when they will make an appearance. Last year we were incredibly lucky here in São Miguel Island to have a pod of orcas sticking around from January to the end of May. Today's encounter was the first since they. This morning we encountered a large male and female travelling together. They were doing long dives and always surfacing far from their dive location. Although there were several fin whales nearby they were not interested in hunting, they just seemed to be travelling. Perhaps we know these orcas from previous encounters, we have to analyse our photos to see if we recognise them. Besides our orca encounter this morning we also encountered several fin whales and a nice pod of bottlenose dolphins very close to Ponta Delgada marina where we depart from. On our way back we also spotted a large ocean sunfish (Mola mola) from our catamaran.

Photos from today:

Male orca surfacing at speed

Male orca

One of the fin whales from this morning

Bottlenose dolphin

Ocean sunfish (Mola mola)