From East to West on a perfect summer day!

Today morning we went far to the east of the island of Sao Miguel, so much far that even some of our biologists never been in this location before. But we managed to see 5 sei whales and some Atlantic spotted dolphins. 

Atlantic spotted dolphin jumping

Atlantic spotted dolphin

Sei Whale Dorsal

Sei Whale

Then in the afternoon, we went to the west opposite way than this afternoon. There we spotted a fin whale, common dolphins, and bottlenose dolphins. The bottlenose dolphins were feeding, so we decided to use the hydrophone and listen to them.

Bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphins

Fin Whale dorsal

Fin Whale head

Feeding time for some birds

A lot of marine life in just one day

In between some white caps we had several encounters today. During the first half of the day we enjoyed the presence of Bottlenose Dolphins, later we observed two Sei Whales and in the end, we watched the Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. From our zodiacs the Striped Dolphins could also be seen.

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins

Atlantic Spotted dolphins

Sei whale

 Sei whale

 The second tour was dedicated to two different residents the Bottlenose Dolphins and the Common Dolphins. Both species approached the boat and showed us their beauty and some tricks their able to do like a “headstand” hovering for a few second the half of its body under the water and the other half with the tail out.

So five different cetacean species were at home in the south of São Miguel today and let us join them for a while in their natural habitat, the wide Atlantic Ocean.

 Common dolphin

While in Pico Island we saw two groups of male sperm whales, the first one with four socializing and showing the spiracle. The second group with three individuals showing the tail at the same time! 

We also saw a big group of around 100 bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins and Risso's dolphins.  

 Sperm whale spiracle

Risso's Dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Atlantic Spotted dolphin

Sperm whales with a calf in Pico Island

Today in Pico Island the sea was a bit wavy but despite that, we had a nice tour!  

We saw a group of female Sperm whales and one calf. 

Female Sperm whale with a calf 

We also saw a pod of Risso's dolphins and another group of Bottlenose dolphins feeding!

Risso's dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

We spent today in the company of our famous Mr Liable again

We spent today in the company of our famous resident sperm whale Mr Liable again. Mr Liable is really well known in São Miguel for many years and we see him every year and almost every month. 

We got to see him in both the morning and afternoon and we even got to see his huge tail during the morning tour. 

We also had our resident bottlenose dolphins today (the well known group of bubblemaker in the morning) and Atlantic spotted dolphins in the afternoon. It was another fantastic summer day out on the ocean for us.

Sperm whale 'Mr Liable' tail

Sperm whale 'Mr Liable' diving

Sperm whale 'Mr Liable'

Bottlenose dolphin bubbles

Bottlenose dolphin jumping out of the water 

Bottlenose dolphin jumping part I

Bottlenose dolphin jumping part II

A great day in São Miguel Island with 8 different species

This morning we saw 8 species, our catamaran and zodiacs spotted the resident species bottlenose dolphins but then each boat was different. 

Our catamaran 'Cetus'

Our catamaran could see for a moment a Minke whale and also saw a Sei whale. 

Sei whale surfacing

On the other hand, our zodiacs managed to see Common dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, a fin whale that was a bit shy and a Sperm whale breaching several times!! 

Fin whale

To finish, on our afternoon tour we saw Risso's dolphins being the 8th species that we saw today. Then we went with the bottlenose dolphins and close to them was our male resident Sperm whale Mr. Liable, who showed the tail again. 

Seagull catching a fish

Common dolphins

Risso's dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins 

Sperm whale 'Mr Liable' diving 

6 cetacean species and something unexpected: a whale carcass!

Today has been an amazing day at sea, in São Miguel Island! 

We have seen 6 cetacean species: bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, common dolphins, pilot whales, sei whales and a fin whale! 

But beside these great sightings, today we found something unexpected on our afternoon trip: a whale carcass!! Probably it has died some time ago, as it was quite decomposed and smelling not very nicely. It had plenty of pilot fish underneath. It is wildlife!!! 

But not only whales and dolphins, as well a turtle, flying fish, Portuguese Man-of-War,  a storm petrel, a shark (maybe a blue shark), and of course, our dearest Cory’s shearwaters.

Whale carcass

Whale carcass

Whale carcass

Sei whale and dead whale far in the distance

Sei whale

Watching Fin whale

Watching Bottlenose dolphin jumping

Bottlenose dolphin bubbles 

Watching Bottlenose dolphin jumping

Watching Bottlenose dolphin jumping

In Pico Island, we had a full morning with a group of Sperm whales and five Sei whales with a calf very curious about our boat! We also encountered a pod of Common dolphins and another one of the Striped dolphins.

Sei whale

Sperm whale

Striped dolphins

Common dolphins