Fin whales, sperm whales, common dolphins and a Loggerhead turtle | Whale and dolphin watching | Sunday

What a wonderful day today! We started in a sunny and warm day. Our first stop: a giant group of jumping bottlenosedolphins. They were playful, curious, playing with our boat, bow ridding… it was an unforgeable experience. We also went to saw two Fin whales, very calm and common dolphins were also very playful. In the afternoon… surprise! Sperm whales appeared!

Photos by Mariana Silva e David Rodrigues

Fin whale

Loggerhead turtle

Bottlenose Dolphins

Bottlenose Dolphin

Watching Bottlenose Dolphins

Sperm whale

Sperm whale

Dolphin watching

Fin Whale

Whale watching tour

Fin whales

Common and Bottlenose dolphins | Dolphin Watching | Friday Morning

It was a grey day in São Miguel Island today. However we had a great number of Common and Bottlenose dolphins in our tour. And you, when are you thinking to visit us?

Photos by Miranda van der Linde 

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphin

Common dolphin

Quatro Ventos catamaran with bottlenose dolphins

Blue whales, Fin whales and Sperm whales | Pico Island Whale Watching

Yesterday we saw two Blue whales, two Fin whales and two male Sperm whales in our tour in Pico Island. Such an amazing experience!

Photos by Rui Santos

Blue whale's tail 

Blue whale

Fin whale surfacing

Sperm whales diving

Whale and Dolphin Watching | Wednesday

This morning we rode the waves out towards the east where we had two large fin whales waiting for us off the coast of Povoação. We were able to see these two whales very well, as they came up calmly to the surface and even synchronised their blows. Before seeing these majestic whales we also encountered a large and very active group of bottlenose dolphins, which happened to be the same group that we encountered yesterday.

Photos by Miranda van der Linde e David Rodrigues 

Two large fin whales blowing

Bottlenose dolphins jumping

Bottlenose dolphins

Bottlenose dolphins

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins bowriding

Fin whale

Fin whale blow

Fin whale

Whale and Dolphins Watching | Thursday

A grey day but a fun day at the sea! We saw humpback whale, fin whale and bottlenose dolphins. The perfect playground for marine wildlife adventures! 
Photos by David Rodrigues

Humpback whale

Bottlenose dolphin jumping

Whale Watching Tour

Humpback whale

Humpback whale

Watching Bottlenose dolphins

Monday | Fin whales and common dolphins

What a beautiful sunny day we had in São Miguel Island. Today we found common dolphins and fin whales. It was a very active day at sea! Photos by Mariana Silva.

Fin whale blowing

Fin whale 

Common dolphins

Common tern

Common dolphin

Sunday | Common dolphins

Today the sea was a bit rough, but 2 groups of common dolphins were with us in this beautiful funny day! We enjoyed as the jump next to our boats. Photos by Mariana Silva.

Close up. Common dolphin

Cory's shearwater

Common dolphin

Common dolphin

Common dolphin

Common dolphin

Futurismo takes part on 32 nd European Cetacean Society Annual Conference

Our marine biologists from Futurismo are not just guides; they also do research with the data we collect during our whale watching tours. As our clients may notice in all our tours we make photographs of the animals and we always collect specific data (GPS location, number of animals, behaviour…).

When weather conditions don’t allow us to go out to the sea, we analyze all those photos and data to better understand and learn about cetaceans of the Azores. 

As a result of the hard work of the team of biologists from Futurismo, three of our members (Biagio Violi, Marina Gardoki and Victor Ojeda) are presenting their scientific posters in the 32 nd European Cetacean Society Annual Conference that will be held in La Spezia (Italy)

Have a look at their posters and come and find us at the Conference!

- Ojeda, V; Montoya, C; van der Linde, M; González, L. 2018. Complex temporal distribution of fin whales and sei whales in the Azores. (Conference code: HD23)

- Gardoki, M; González, L; van der Linde, M; Azevedo, JMN; Fernández, M. 2018.
Mr. Liable, a resident male in the Azores? (Conference code: DA18)

- Violi, B & dos Santos, RP. 2018. Occurrence of fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) in
the Azores archipelago: assessment on its migration behavior and first photo-ID catalogue of the area. (Conference code: DA08)

Click on the posters to enlarge

Saturday | Fin Whales, Sperm Whales and Common Dolphins

Today we managed to see two families of sperm whales, common dolphins, and fin whales, including a mother and a calf! :) Photos by Mariana Silva

 Sperm whales

 Fin whale

 Fin whale

Fin whale

March sighting statistics

March… the beginning of the spring… an exciting month in Futurismo as is when the baleen whale season stars for us; so far only fin whales have paid us a visit and some blue whales were already sighted by our lookouts! So, they are close…

This march we have gone a total of 17 days out to the ocean and specially in the second half of the month, the beginning were some really ‘stormy’ days.

A total of 6 species have been seen by our boats, including of course the resident ones (sperm whales, common, bottlenose and Risso’s dolphins), the lovely false killer whales and of course the fin whales!

Species

Sighting frequency

Golfinho comum | Common dolphin                                    100%

Roaz corvineiro | Bottlenose dolphin                                     76%

Baleia comum | Fin whale                                                      47%

Golfinho de Risso | Risso's dolphin                                        18%

Falsa orca | False killer whale                                                 6%

Cachalote | Sperm whale                                                        6%

We hope April comes with better weather and with many many whales!