Rain and wind and whales

Today in the morning we started the trip with a group of common dolphins spread out across a large area close to Ponta Delgada. After a while, our lookout spotted a very big group of Cory´sshearwaters that were feeding with another group of common dolphins.  Suddenly, the clouds covered the south coast of the island so  the visibility was reduced. As we always try our best, we changed our direction to the south, to the last location where our lookout had seen whales before the clouds had moved in. We were trying for a long time, thinking that it was almost impossible to see them, but suddenly the clouds disappeared  and we could see to the whales: once more, finwhales! We had a very curious group of three whales, swimming very close to our boat, blowing all at the same time showing their blowholes very well. They were doing short dives and after a while one more whale came into the group. A little farther away there was another whale, so we had a total of 5 fin whales in the area. To finish our morning tour, we had an amazing encounter with a group of bottlenose dolphins. They were really curious and bowriding in front of the boat.

In the afternoon we didn't see the whales, we tried for a while in the rain but we didn't see them. We set off to the north west and we encountered a very large group of bottlenose dolphins jumping high out of the water - several meters - bowriding and playing around. We saw some males really showing of their strength and agility and some playful juveniles mimicking them. A great show for us! 

Photos from the morning:

Fin whale blowing

Fin whale surfacing

Fin whale almost fluking

Bottlenose dolphin surfacing

Common dolphins together with Cory's shearwater

Cory's shearwater everywhere

Our skipper removing rubbish from the ocean

A day with a blue whale and a month with fin whales

Today we had a visit from a large blue whale. This particular whale was sighted during both our morning and afternoon whale watching tours. As well as this largest animal in the world we are still on a roll with the second largest: the fin whale. We have now encountered fin whales every day for the last 31 one days straight! We also enjoyed the company of common dolphins throughout the day and we had a lovely swimming tour with them in the morning. As a bonus, those on our catamaran in the morning also spotted an ocean sunfish (Mola mola).

Photos from today:

The blue whale - the same individual morning and afternoon

The blue whale just to surface

By the spots on the body we can identify the different blue whales

Common dolphins bowriding with our catamaran

Common dolphin

Swimming with common dolphins

Our swimming boat from the morning

Watching the blue whale surfacing


Morning fin whale


Aboard our catamaran Cetus in the afternoon - on our way back to Ponta Delgada

A visit from a baby fin whale

This morning we encountered a beautiful baby fin whale travelling together with its mother. We also encountered another adult whale travelling alone and we have marked our 30th day straight seeing fin whales every day here in São Miguel, Azores. In fact so far this month we have seen fin whales during every single tour, both morning and afternoon. During the morning we also encountered a large group of bottlenose dolphins and a not so large group of common dolphins. It has been another very successful morning on the sea and we are now awaiting news from our afternoon tour which is currently operating.

Video of fin whale surfacing

Photos from this morning:

Fin whales - mother and calf

Fin whales - mother and calf

Fin whale mother after the sun decided to make an appearance

Fin whale

Well-known bottlenose dolphins

Hello!

Common dolphin

5 species including 3 whale species

Today started out really good. The clouds disappeared when we left the marina and we soon spotted our first dolphins. They were common dolphins. Not much later we found our first whale. It was a fin whale, the second largest animal in the world! At first we could only spot one fin whale, but as it turned out, there were two of them. We saw them surfacing a couple of times before we headed out to the next whale. In the distance we could see a lot of splashing. It turned out to be a breaching sperm whale! Unfortunately when we came closer, the whale dove a couple of times. Later on we could see that she was teaming up with two other sperm whales. So we saw three sperm whales in total!

When we headed back in the direction of the marina our skipper noticed something surfacing. They were beaked whales.  It was hard to tell what species it was, so we took photo´s and we will sent those photo´s to a specialist. She might tell us what the exact species is.

Beaked whales are quite rare to see here in the Azores, as they spent little time at the surface (only 8% of their time). Also they tend to be very shy.

We ended the morning tour with a great show from the bottlenose dolphins.

In the afternoon we encountered fewer species, but the tour was just as great. Once again fin whales dominated the tour. We started with two individuals not far from Ponta Delgada. Just a bit further out we encountered another 3-4 fin whales together with bottlenose dolphins. The bottlenose dolphins were playfully leaping around the whales until they had enough of this game. We followed the fin whales for a while until we ended up with the first whale nearer to Ponta Delgada. We ended the tour with yet another fin whale before enjoying a nice coastal trip back to the marina.

Photos from the morning:

Fin whale

Fin whale

Fin whale making a rainbow blow

Common dolphin surfacing

Common dolphin in front of our boat

Fin whale before diving

4 sperm whales

Young sperm whale

Beaked whale sp.

Bottlenose dolphins

Our catamaran Cetus

Photos from the afternoon:

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