Crystal clear waters with dolphins and Sowerby's beaked whales

This morning we had another perfect summer weather tour out on the ocean. The sea was calm and crystal clear and it was as if we were travelling over a mirror. We ended up having some nice encounters with groups of common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. Those aboard our zodiac boat were also lucky to encounter a group of Sowerby's beaked whales. The elusive beaked whales soon disappeared, as they often do, but at least some were lucky to see them.

Sowerby's beaked whale and Santa Maria in the background

Common dolphin enjoying the ride next to our catamaran

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins

Out on our catamaran, riding over a perfect calm ocean


Aboard our zodiac

Sperm whales, beaked whales, common and spotted dolphins

A day filled with cetaceans: sperm whales, Blainville's beaked whales, common dolphins and spotted dolphins for our whale watchers and our swimmers swam with bottlenose dolphins. The whale watchers started with common dolphins and soon Atlantic spotted dolphins, then we saw a feeding group of common dolphins and Cory's shearwaters. Happy with the dolphins we took of to see the sperm whales but on the way we encountered Blainville's beaked whales. This was truly a gift to see as they surfaced and then approached us. There were 2 or 3 adults and one juvenile, and the juvenile passed just a few meter away from our catamaran Cetus. We stayed around for a while with these amazing animals and after we continued to the sperm whales. It took a while for the sperm whales to accept us and let us come close to them. We stopped and waited for them to come to us. We realized they were a bit spread out and were gathering and when five of them finally got together they came very close to us. We got no tails but we had spectacular meeting with cetaceans today and as if that was not enough we also encountered a loggerhead turtle and it looked like it was waving to us.  What a day! 

Photos from today:

Atlantic spotted dolphins

Cory's shearwaters fighting for fish

The winner!

(I can hear the bird saying - it was THIS big) :P

Juvenile Blainville's beaked whale

Juvenile Blainville's beaked whale

Three sperm whales closer to us and two more further away

The group close to us

A curious juvenile

Aboard Cetus watching sperm whales

Aboard our catamaran Cetus

The turtle waving to us

Long tour but a perfect reward: sperm whales

This morning we encountered 4 species: common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, spotted dolphins and finally sperm whale far in the northwest. Our tour had to be longer then normal as the whales were very far away. But it sure was worth it when we got a great reward, being surrounded by a sperm whale family. We could see a few blows around us but we stayed with a female and a juvenile. We did not get any flukes but at least a half fluke as the female twisted around in the water and we got photos, maybe good enough to identify who she was. This is very important to us biologists for our research. 

Photos from today:

Sperm wale teasing us by showing us just the tip of its fluke

Bottlenose dolphins

Our zodiac boat with bottlenose dolphins

The west of the island - showing the town and islet of Mosteiros

Only like a dolphin can

Today we saw both common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins throughout the day and once again we were listening to the dolphins. We put the hydrophone in the water and we heard some funny noises and we got some high jumps - only like dolphins can. They sure were having a great time, and it even looks elegant when a 400 kg dolphin jumps 4 meter into the air. 

Photos from today:

Bottlenose dolphins leaping in unison

A curious bottlenose dolphin

Enjoying the coastal views from aboard our catamaran

A wild dolphin show

This afternoon we got to see a really fantastic wild show from a group of about 50 bottlenose dolphins. They gave us a really fantastic display of high leaps into the air, sometimes reaching 3-4 m high! All the clients aboard our catamaran got really hyped up and their energetic screams of pure joy and excitement seemed to make the dolphins all the more interested in our boat and the passengers aboard. The dolphins kept coming right to our boat and leaping right in front of us. Nothing beats seeing such an amazing show from wild dolphins that are swimming free in the ocean where they belong. All the clients aboard our catamaran learned the valuable lesson that we should never visit these amazing animals in captivity under any circumstances. We hope this memory and important lesson stays with them.

Photos from today:

Dolphin communication

Today we had some guests talking on the microphone of our catamaran Cetus - and they were the best talkers ever! I can't believe the help that us biologist got today. We had both bottlenose dolphins and common dolphin chatting live on the microphone (through our hydrophone). It was an amazing experience for all of us to watch the dolphins and at the same time have them whistling over our sound system. We could see plenty of baby dolphins today in both groups, and the bottlenose dolphins were giving us many high jumps. Every time we accelerated a little bit they started jumping alongside us for fun. 

A great thanks to our captain for his work and patience today, and the sailors/skippers on board for putting the hydrophone working. Videos filmed on board to capture the sounds of the dolphins, and for us to hear the difference between the two species.

Bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphins

Photos from today:

A rainbow to start the day

Bottlenose dolphins jumping high

Watching bottlenose dolphins

A young bottlenose dolphins next to us

João with the hydrophone

A young common dolphin next to us

Common dolphin

Aboard cetus

Resident species are always good!

In the morning time, we had three boats going out: two of them for whale watching and one for the swimming with dolphins activity. One of our rubber boats arrived to the area of the whales earlier than any other boat and luckily they could enjoy the experience, seeing them breaching and lobtailing. It was an amazing and close encounter with a juvenile of our resident whale: the sperm whale. After a while, the catamaran arrived and they could see the sperm whales at the surface, blowing and showing their tails near the boat. They waited for more whales but they never showed up again at the surface, but everybody got the seem them today so we were all happy. Later we went to an area near Ponta Delgada, where our lookout had spotted a group of bottlenose dolphins. They were great, surfing the waves next to the the boat, trying to swim as fast as our catamaran.

In the afternoon we found a group of common dolphins outside Rocha da Relva, with many babies. We could also see a turtle, the most common one in this waters: loggerhead turtle.

 Leaving Ponta Delgada

 Aboard  our catamaran "Cetus"

 Sperm whale diving

 Sperm whale at the surface (note the white patch in front of the dorsal fin)

Bottlenose dolphin jumping 

 Bottlenose dolphin wave surfing

 Our tourists on the way back

Our tourists aboard our catamaran Cetus