9 whale and dolphin species in one day!

Today we made a new record - we encountered 9 different whale and dolphin species throughout the day. 7 different species in the morning and 6 in the afternoon (some from the afternoon were re-encounters to make a total of 9 different species during the day. We also encountered 7 sicklefin devil rays in the afternoon - what an amazing day!

Here's the list for the morning: a fin whale, Blainville's beaked whales, northern bottlenose whales (a quick encounter for our full day clients), striped dolphins, Risso's dolphins, common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins (our swimming clients were with the bottlenose dolphins). 

And the list for the afternoon: sperm whales (including a big male), Blainville's beaked whales, Risso's dolphins, common dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins and bottlenose dolphins (once again the swimmers were with the bottlenose dolphins). Not to forget in the afternoon our whale watching clients also encountered the 7 sicklefin devil rays. 

This is the best kind of day that you can have out on the ocean and it's a nice reminder of why the Azores is one of the top 5 destinations for whale and dolphin watching all throughout the year. 27 different whale and dolphin species have been registered in these waters, that's about a third of the World's species! 

Photos from the morning:

Fin whale

Fin whale blow

Blainville's beaked whale - notice the beak and behind the prominent arched jaws of this mature male

Blainville's beaked whale

Striped dolphins in their typical way of travelling

Striped dolphins racing with Cory's shearwaters flying overhead

Watching the striped dolphins from our catamaran

Juvenile tern flying alongside us

One of our whale watching boats

Photos from the afternoon:

Approaching a sperm whale

Large male sperm whale with a very prominent head (this is typical of the males)

Male sperm whale diving

Risso's dolphins

Risso's dolphins going on a dive

Blainville's beaked whale

Atlantic spotted dolphin bowriding in the crystal clear Azorean waters

Atlantic spotted dolphins

The art of whale watching

Even though whales are the biggest animals in the world, sometimes they are not that easy to find and they are able to hide from us. This happened to us both in the morning and afternoon and we really had to put our patience to the test to find the whales. The art of successful whale watching involves being patient and understanding that we are visitors in the animals' home and they do what they want when they want. Sometimes it also involves getting a feeling for what they animals may be doing while they are underwater and which way they may be travelling. In the morning our patience paid off for the catamaran clients as we ended up seeing a fin whale, the second largest animal in the world. In the afternoon it was the zodiac clients who were in the sperm whale area earlier and got to see more than the catamaran clients. As well as whales we had bottlenose dolphins throughout the day and also some common dolphins in the morning, so in the end there was plenty for all to see. 

Photos from today: 

A bottlenose dolphin we call "Broken jaw" and who we recently spotted for the first time with this calf

"Broken jaw", encountered in the morning

Fin whale head

Fin whale at the surface

Common dolphin from the morning

Another common dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin from the afternoon

Another bottlenose dolphin from the afternoon tour

Fin whales all day

Today we spotted two fin whales in the morning and two in the afternoon, so it was awesome to be on the sea all day. We also encountered common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins so curious and gracious, and they surely were looking back at us.

Photos from today:

Fin whale rainbowblow!

Common dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Fin whale

Unfamiliar sperm whales

We often write about familiar sperm whales, the ones that we recognise and know well because we see them on a regular basis. This morning we encountered an unfamiliar group of sperm whales that we did not recognise. We still have to compare our ID photos of these whales to our catalogue to be 100% sure that we haven't seen them before, as we now have about 300 sperm whales in our catalogue so we cannot remember them all. Our zodiac boat that arrived to the sperm whale area first encountered several whales at the surface and got to see some nice tails from them. Later the catamaran arrived and stayed with one curious adult sperm whale. There were blows of other whales around, but this whale was so curious that it was worth it to stay and watch just this one. We got to see the sperm whale rolling around, upside down and pocking its head out of the water as it passed nearby. In the end we also got to see a beautiful tail from this whale. We also had common dolphins around during the day and had a particularly memorable encounter with a tight group of about 80 of them in the afternoon. In the morning one of our boats also had a brief encounter with some bottlenose dolphins to make a total of 3 cetacean species for the day. A few people on the catamaran in the morning with a keen eye also spotted a hammerhead shark as we were heading out. Another great summer's day!

Photos from today:

Sperm whale encountered by the zodiac boat

The curious sperm whale encountered by the catamaran

Head of the curious sperm whale

Bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphin

  Swimming with common dolphins in the afternoon

A summers day with our residents and surprise visitors

Today we had an amazing summer day outon the ocean and we enjoyed it in the company of 5 different cetacean species.We started the day with our 4 resident species: sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and a couple of Risso's dolphins. The sperm whales were a bit shy and difficult to watch, but we were all happy to be able to have some short encounters with them at a bit further distance to respect this family group that we are not familiar with. The dolphins were playful as usual, even the Risso's dolphins came to check out our catamaran a few times, something that this species doesn't often do. In the afternoon we had 2 surprise visitors: fin whales. We have been seeing fin whales on and since throughout the summer this year, which is not usual. Normally fin whales and other baleen whales migrate past the Azores during the spring months, so we have been very lucky this year to have sporadic visits from fin whales off-season.

Photos from today:

Risso's dolphin

Sperm whale logging at the surface

Sperm whale blow

Fin whale blow

Fin whale

One of the fin whales showing its dorsal fin and tail tip at the same time

A big surprise

Today we went out to sea and encountered three dolphin species that we see regularly during this time of the year: bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and Atlantic spotted dolphins. As well as these regular sightings we had another much bigger surprise - fin whales! In the morning there were three of them travelling together and from one of our boats they got to see these amazing whales that were even curious at times. Our other boats arrived a bit later to try to join in on the sighting but unfortunately they dissapeared as quickly as they appeared. In the afternoon it was the catamaran clients' turn to see one of the fin whales. We had some returning clients returning their luck again so it was nice to be able to show them a whale this time. Each tour is very different and is always a surprise, even for the biologists aboard.

Photos from the morning:

Bottlenose dolphins

Watching bottlenose dolphins from the side of our catamaran Cetus

Photos from the afternoon:

Fin whale

Fin whale diving

The bottlenose dolphins following us as we leave