The memory of a young sperm whale

Today we set out on a wavy ocean, 11 brave clients on a small boat full of hope for something big. We did see something big, even if it was "just" a juvenile. We saw a sperm whale (cachalot or pottwal), it was travelling fast but all of a sudden it stopped, rolled around and started resting or logging on the surface. It gave us a small and low fluke, which I got a photo of but it is a bit blurry. But as a promise to my guests on board, it will be uploaded anyway as a memory. Before this whale we had an amazing time with common dolphins feeding on garfish and mackerel and jumping all around us. Almost difficult to leave them, but a whale is a whale. On our way back we stopped at Rocha de Relva to enjoy this beautiful place and rock formations. 

Photos from today:

Splash!

Common dolphin

Watching common dolphins

Common dolphins

Common dolphin

Sperm whale

Sperm whale

The blurry fluke (I hope you enjoy the photo anyway)

December starts with whales, whales, whales

Today we got blessed by the presence of two different whale species. In the morning we had Mr. Liable around, our famous male sperm whale, but we also got to enjoy both common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. In the afternoon we started with the two same dolphins species and we ended with three fin whales. They were very calm and stayed around our catamaran Quatro Ventos a long time. And we also had common dolphins around the whales. And a few lucky got to see a leatherback turtle. 

Photos from today:

Mr. Liable (morning)

Mr. Liable (morning)

Mr. Liable (morning)

Mr. Liable (morning)

Mr. Liable (morning)

Fin whale (afternoon)

Fin whale (afternoon)

Fin whale (afternoon)

Fin whale (afternoon)

Fin whale (afternoon)

Fin whale (afternoon)

Watching bottlenose dolphins

 

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin "Bubblemaker"

Bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphin

November 2015 sighting statistics

November has been a month of amazing tours even though we haven't seen many species, it has been really good. It has not been a whale month but also a month of bad weather. In the beginning of the month we had false killer whales around and in the end of the month we had some real whales around. We sighted sperm whales families with breachings and flukes. Our lookout has also seen beaked whales (Mesoplodon sp.), a minke whale and a humpback whale but they were never sighted from our boats. Smaller dolphins, we have seen our residents: common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins and Risso's dolphins. Now we start feeling that winter is coming here in the Azores.

When it comes to other marine life the Cory's shearwaters has still been around, lots of juveniles learning how to fly, and some great shearwaters,  Bulwer's petrels, yellowlegged gulls and little egrets. We have started to see winter birds such as great skuas, great black-backed gull and kittiwakes, plus a storm petrel. We have also seen loggerhead turtles, flying fish and lots of mackerel and garfish that the common dolphins have been feeding on.

• Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) - 90 %Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiop truncatus) - 42 %
• Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) - 26 %
• False killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) - 11 %
• Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) - 11 %

Hello there!

Today we met our Bubblemaker and his family again and the sea was like silver. The bottlenose dolphins were playing around, bowriding and looking our clients in their eyes. Among the bottlenose dolphins we had one little common dolphin swimming around, but it was not alone, inshore there was a big group of common dolphins. We went searching for any other species but we couldn't find anything so we enjoyed the lovely coastline on the way back. 

Photos from today:

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Common dolphin

Breaching sperm whale day!

Today we went out on calm and sunny seas. It didn't take long and we were with a pod of 10 sperm whales including a young calf. One sperm whale approached our boat very close and said"hello" to our customers. And then it happened, a sperm whale breached three times for us!!! This is a behavior that we are not seeing very often, so we have been really very lucky today. We also saw a active feeding group of common dolphins that were also jumping a lot. One of our clients said:" We are getting a big show today".

Sperm Whale Breaching

Sperm Whale Breaching

Jumping Common dolphin 

Where to point the camera

When you have common dolphins jumping all around it is not easy to know where to point the camera to capture them. Once again common dolphins everywhere, feeding and jumping. In one group we also had a dark common dolphins, an individual missing the yellow colour. And we could see them feeding on both mackerel and garfish (or sea needle). Our lookout did spot a humpback whale as well but only saw it once and then it disappeared. And we could never find it nor the bottlenose dolphins. But the common dolphins never let us down and we got to see at least 3 loggerhead turtles.

Photos from today:

Common dolphin with a fish in its mouth

Common dolphin without the yellow colour

Dark common dolphin, compare the colour with the photo below

Common dolphin 

Our marine biologist Sara saving a small part of the ocean