Flippers everywhere but shy whales

After so many days of rain and windy days winter is finally giving us a break, allowing us to go out on our whale watching trips. Yesterday we had a wonderful sunny day and today we had a perfect winter day with high clouds giving us a very nice view of the island from the sea. The sea was very smooth reflecting all the clouds of the sky. At first we saw a very small group of common dolphins, our loyal friends. After the common we went to the bottlenose dolphins, finding a giant group of ‘Flippers’; they were so many, that when we left the area looking for a baleen whale that the lookout spotted we ended surrounded by them. They were everywhere, showing all kind of behaviours and sizes. Unfortunately we didn’t see the baleen whale, that most likely was a humpback whale. Some of our crew and clients saw the blow far away but we didn’t ‘catch’ it. It was one of the tricky whales that breaths very few times and spending very little time in surface. What can we say? Whales and dolphins are exactly like people; sometimes they are in the mood, other time, is not that easy. Like a small bonus while waiting and searching for the whale, we encountered a very tiny loggerhead turtle.

Photos from today of bottlenose dolphins: 

Two dolphins in sync

Perfect photo for an ID

In the boat...

 

Beautiful sunny day

Another fantastic trip! Sun, calm ocean ... everything was perfect! We sailed a bit until we reached our first species…surprise...striped Dolphins! As always these dolphins were swimming really fast, stealing smiles from our clients! After a few moments our lookout contacted our skipper reporting that he had seen a group of sperm Whales near the area and, of course, we didn’t lose the opportunity. We saw at least four sperm whales, two of which showed their majestic tails! After comparing our fluke photos to our catalogue we could determine that the whale was one that we haven't photographed here before, so it will be a new addition to our sperm whale photo-ID catalogue. On our return we had the usual visit of our friends, the common Dolphins. A beautiful day after so many days of wind and rain.

 Physeter macrocephalus | Sperm whale

 Physeter macrocephalus | Sperm whale - new individual for our catalogue

                                                     Stenella coeruleoalba | Striped dolphin

                                                          Stercorarius skua | Great Skua

Some of our clients and our captain enjoying the animals :)

Entangled

This morning the sea had calmed down after recent bad weather so we were all excited to get back out on the water for some dolphin and whale watching. All started well as we were heading out and seeing jumping common dolphins in the distance. However, before we got close to them our boat ran over a submerged rope that couldn't be seen from the surface. The rope became entangled around one of our propelors and despite the crew's efforts we couldn't free it. Ropes and nets in the propelors is something that happens to our boats at least a few times per year and unfortunately this may be on the increase as the world's oceans are becoming more polluted with these ropes and nets as well as other debris such as plastic. This is a huge concern also for whales, dolphins, turtles, marine birds and fish because they also become entangled (or swallow) this marine debris. In the case of lost or discarded fishing gear in the water we refer to it as "ghost gear", because it silently keeps killing countless numbers of marine life, with much of this killing taking place unseen by us. The rope we ran over today was very thick and looked more like a mooring rope from a large ship rather than fishing gear. Nevertheless it can be a threat to big whales, so today we did our part in conserving the whales in the Azores by removing this rope from the ocean. Thanks to our clients today for understanding the situation and being very patient as we travelled back under the power of one engine.

Mr. Liable is back!

We set out on a calm and beautiful sea, teasing us with summer feelings with delightful sunshine. We started with a small group of playful common dolphins, bowriding and we could clearly hear them sing. But after this encounter we had to drop some clients back in the marina, but soon we were off again out on the sea and our lookout guided to a sperm whale. It was Mr. Liable, but he dived before we arrived, but many of our clients got to see his wonderful tail a bit further away. Instead of waiting on the spot for him to surface again, we set off to see bottlenose dolphins and our friend Egípcio. The bottlenose dolphins were travelling right to the area of Mr. Liable, so when it was time for him to come up we were already there. And we got a perfect tail. A special thank you to all our wonderful and understanding clients today, and thank to the ocean for giving us this amazing tour with Mr. Liable as the highlight. 

Photos from today:

Common dolphin in perfect water

Common dolphins

Watching common dolphins

Bottlenose dolphins bowriding

Rainbowblow

Mr. Liable

Mr. Liable

Mr. Liable

Mr. Liable characteristic tail

An ocean full of whales

This morning we went out on our catamaran for our third tour of the year. We set out with good news from our lookout on land who had spotted whales to the east. He informed us that there were many sperm whales spread out across a large area, but even with this information we were surprised at the large number of whales out there. Everywhere we looked we saw blows and we moved around the different areas seeing many different individuals. We even saw at least 2 small calves, something that is not common to see here in the winter time. We ended our sperm whale encounter with a small adult sperm whale that we managed to see well, including its tail as it started a deep dive. After the whales we still had time to spend with a group of common dolphins that were curious as ever and spent some time bowriding with us before leaving us again.

Photos from today:

A sunny dolphin day

Today it's a beautiful sunny day in São Miguel Island in the Azores. We spent the morning of this great day out on the water enjoying the sunshine, the views and of course the cetaceans. Just like on our first tour of the year (on January 1st) we continued the rest of this first week of 2016 with more dolphin encounters.  First we encountered small groups of common dolphins spread over a large area near Ponta Delgada. After spending some time with these dolphins we continued further to the west where we encountered a nice group of bottlenose dolphins. It didn't take us long to realise that they were the familiar group of "Bubblemaker". Bubblemaker is a dolphin that we know well and is often seen blowing a trail of bubbles before surfacing. These bottlenose dolphins were more curious than the common dolphins, so we stayed with them a while so we got to see them really well. During the rest of the morning some loggerhead turtles were also spotted by those aboard with a keen eye on the water, and we also enjoyed the coastal views of the island on our way back in to the marina.

Photos of the bottlenose dolphins from today:

The view from aboard our catamaran

Our zodiac with the one we call Bubblemaker

A very curious individual

Happy New Year with Dolphins

Here at Sao Miguel we started the year with some lovely dolphin encounters. We went out in a bit wavy conditions. On both tours morning and afternoon we encountered several small groups of common dolphins, they were a little shy but we could watch them surface a couple of times. In the afternoon we were really surprised by a suddenly appearing group of over 50 bottlenose dolphins. They were very acrobatic and delighted us with countless jumps. This group is a group that we recognize, it was the group of egypsy and submarine, a group that we know for quite some time. What a start of the year!

Photos from the afternoon:

Bottlenose dolphins

Bottlenose dolphins jumping

Bottlenose dolphins jumping

2015 sighting statistics

2015 has been another excellent year for whale and dolphin watching off São Miguel Islands in the Azores. This cetacean hotspot in the middle of the north Atlantic ocean attracts a huge diversity of whale and dolphin species, and this year was definitely a diverse year. Across the seasons this year we encountered a total of 16 different species!

As is expected the 3 most encountered species throughout the year were 3 of our resident species: the common dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and sperm whale. Next in line was the fin whale, one of the spring time migratory whales that appears to be on the increase in the Azores in recent years. Our sightings graph below summarises the sighting frequencies of all species throughout the year. The best part is that this year during all our tours we had a 100% success rate. That means that during every tour at least one species of whale or dolphin was encountered! 

Our list of other species we spotted this year includes many loggerhead turtles, leatherback turtles (2015 was a record year for leatherbacks!), sunfish, devil rays, hammerhead sharks, blue sharks, tuna, spearfish and marlin, flying fish, flying squid...and last but not least an extensive list of seabirds, with the Cory's shearwater being the most encountered one.

Sighting frequencies of cetaceans seen in 2015, in descending order:

• Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) - 94.4%
• Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) -82.5%
• Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) - 38.9%
• Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) - 27.4%
• Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) - 18.7%
• Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) - 13.1%
• Striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) - 12.7%
• Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) - 5.6%
• Pilot whale species (Glopicephala spp.) - 5.6%
• Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) - 3.6%
• Beaked whale species (Mesoplodon spp.) - 3.6% (Sowerby's and Blainville's beaked whales)
• False killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) - 2.4%
• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) - 1.6%
• Northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) - 0.8% 
• Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius carvirostris) - 0.4%

Keep in mind that the above numbers have been grouped together for the whole year and we observe fluctuations in sighting frequencies across the months. For example the chance of seeing one of the great baleen whales (blue whale, fin whale and sei whale) is very high in the spring and virtually zero other times of the year, and sperm whale are seen more often in the summer than the rest of the year. The best time of the year to do a tour in the Azores depends on what you want to see. The following chart is a rough guide, or for more detailed statistics from our previous years of whale and dolphin watching click HERE.

December 2015 sightings statistics

December has been a good month in terms of whale and dolphin sightings, even though we have only had 7 tours this month due to some very persistent bad weather. When the weather was nice and we were out on the water we enjoyed some nice encounters with 3 of our resident species (sperm whale, bottlenose dolphin and common dolphin) as well as 2 migratory whales (humpback whale and fin whale). One of the sperm whale days was with a juvenile and the others with our trusty returning resident who we call Mr Liable. The fin whale and humpback whale were a nice suprise for this time of the year since we see them mostly during the spring time. With a bit more bad weather now we bring our sighting statistics to a close for 2015 and we are looking forward to getting back out on the water the first day of 2016. We would like to thank our clients from 2015 and wish you all a great 2016. Thank you also to our dedicated readers and we hope to keep you entertained with more stories of fantastic whale and dolphin encounters throughout 2016.

• Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) - 100%
• Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) - 67%
• Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) - 67%
• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) - 17%
• Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) - 17%

Enjoying the dolphins of the Azores

Today we finally have nice sea conditions after a week and a half of bad weather and stormy seas. Of course we only go out if conditions allow and it is safe, and today was our lucky day. We went out in the morning aboard our catamaran Quatro Ventos. We enjoyed riding the swells out there together with bottlenose dolphins and later common dolphins. The bottlenose dolphins were familiar faces, or rather familiar fins to us. From the unique natural marks on their dorsal fins we can see who is who, and today we encountered the group of "Bubblemaker". Bubblemaker is a dolphin that is easy to recognise not only from its dorsal fin, but also from its bubble-blowing behaviour. The bottlenose dolphins were diving, probably feeding, but we enjoyed some nice moments with them when they returned from their dives. The common dolphins were just as interesting to watch. These smaller dolphins are usually more active, and today was one of those days that we could really see this. They were darting around our boat, swimming alongside and in front and even mating for all to see. It's great to know that they are creating more baby dolphins for the next year!

Photos from today:

Bottlenose dolphins

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphins

Common dolphin