Sighting statistics of January 2019

On the first month of the year, as expected, all four of the resident species appeared to us and also a special surprise! 

The Common dolphins were the most spotted, close to the Sperm whales, and not far from them we had the Risso's and the Bottlenose dolphins. As for our surprise, we encountered a humpback whale, wich is not a frequent sighting around the island.

To summarize, it was a good month with some rough days because it is still winter and the sea conditions were not always the best. We hope this humpback whale will call her baleen whales friends and other species since the water temperature is getting perfect for them.

Sperm whales and Common dolphins on a sunny day

"After every storm the sun will smile." And today, after bad days out in the ocean, we managed to see two of our resident species: sperm whales and common dolphins. 

So we started our day in the middle of several blows of sperm whales. We saw at last four individuals including one really big male and one juvenile that showed their tails. 

After seeing the last tail of the juvenile, we headed West according to the directions of our lookout and we found common dolphins. A nice group, curious with our boat and with several juveniles.

Today was a good and sunny day out in the ocean.

A playful group of common dolphins very close to the harbour

Today on our tour we went out among the clouds. 




We travel a bit to try our luck with a humpback whale. Probably the same individual spotted by our lookouts the last few days. But once again, we were trying and waiting for it, but we didn't find it today! Our lookout explained us that he saw it diving and moving randomly around the same area. 




After some time we decided to keep on with our tour to look for dolphins. And as a good winter day, the rain started to fall when we were heading towards land without seeing anything. But... as you know, good things happen to those who wait, so.. to us! Our lookout took us to a very nice and playful group of common dolphins very close to the harbour. They delighted us playing and bowriding our catamaran.

Our biologists Laura González, Andreia Vieira and Mariana Silva

Feeding time for the Risso's, common dolphins and the seabirds

Today, we had a cold but sunny morning. We went out with our catamaran Cetus and started travelling West from Ponta Delgada. Soon, our lookout spotted a pod of dolphins. He directed us to the area and we spotted the first species of this morning: common dolphins. They were very playful and sociable, and we could see them very close from our boat since they were bowriding. 

After a while, the dolphins started to feed and we could see all the feeding festival, with dolphins and birds, mostly gulls but also a young Gannet and two of the first Cory's shearwaters of the year. 

After seeing this show, we had the information that our lookout saw another species of dolphins near the squid fishing boats. So we travelled to the area where they were last spotted and after looking for a while, we found another species: Risso's dolphins. We only saw 3 individuals, that we know belong to one of our resident pods of Risso's dolphins.

Despite the cold, it was a good morning in the presence of two of our resident species.

Sighting statistics of the year 2018

What a amazing year 2018, we found 18 different species! 

As always, our residents set the record 😉 The only ones left behind were the Risso´s dolphins that were sighted less often than the Atlantic Spotted Dolphins and the Fin Whales. 

The award this year goes to our friends Bottlenose Dolphins, which were present in about 65.2% of our tours, followed by the Common Dolphins with a rate of 57%. In the third place, we have our Sperm Whales, the largest animal in the world with teeth. 

The migratory whales began their tours to São Miguel in January, but started to appear almost every day at the end of March, with many sightings of Fin Whales.

It was also a very good year for Blue Whales. They have kept up with the Fin Whales since the end of April, appearing for the last time in the middle of June. These large baleen whales usually pass through the Azores when the water is colder and when they start moving North (during Spring time). In June, the Humpback Whales were really present, always very close to the coast and with plenty of activity. The Atlantic Spotted Dolphins arrived at the beginning of June, but this year they chose to be further away from the shore. They probably had more food available far away from the coast. 

This year, we also saw some very shy species like the famous beaked whales. We were able to see the Sowerby's Beaked Whale, Blainville´s and Northern Bottlenose Whale. We can not forget to mention a very special visit in May: we saw a family of Orcas! But it happened only one morning. 😔

We did not see just whales and dolphins, we saw many flying fishes and a lot of different species of shearwaters.

This year, we had a lot of tours on the North Coast, which gave us a better insight into what is going on around our island. If you pay attention to the maps, there is only a small part of the ocean around the island that does not receive so many visits from our boats. Who knows if 2019 will be the year that we will understand what is going on there?

Our kids, our future!

The world population is getting everyday further away from the natural world and from its cycles. That means that we are getting distant from reality and thus, certain values and foundations that have been always taken for granted, start now to fall into disuse and into oblivion. As such, the development and support of activities for kids and adults based on environmental education, understanding and reconnecting with nature, are of increasing importance in our society. Nature is not only indispensable for our survival and subsistence, but it is also one of the main sources for our personal well-being.

Based on this ideology, over the last months, Futurismo has been developing several activities together with one of the schools of Ponta Delgada. We would like to ensure that some of these values on environmental concern and awareness continue to gain shape and increasing presence and importance in the daily life of these little persons. They are the future! With this program, we aim to increase the regularity and diversity of the environmental education within the curricular program of the regional schools. We aim to develop pedagogical and fun tools that awake curiosity, environmental awareness and teamwork spirit on these children. 

During these educational activities, we have already shared knowledge and a lot more ideas are about to be expressed! All together, we learnt and shared ideas about the rich biodiversity of the Azorean archipelago, with a greater emphasis on the marine mammals, which, like us, also rely on ocean resources to survive; and on the bird species that nest and live here and/or just passing by for a limited period among their migrations. We will explore as well the richness and complexity of the terrestrial environment in São Miguel, introducing the native vegetation with the opportunity to explore in situ by themselves. We believe that these charismatic species and these incredible landscapes will help to awake a sense of active concern for Nature and the Ocean. 

Our biologists explain which cetacean species can be observed in the Azores

We also introduce a small sample of the whaling history of the archipelago, showing the children the hard reality that was present here not so long ago, and how important was the whaling (and nowadays the whale watching!) for the survival of the islanders. 

Another important topic we explore with the kids is the threats that the natural environment is facing nowadays: overfishing, pollution, plastic, etc. We (humans) are directly or indirectly responsible for great part of them. We try to encourage them to reduce their plastic dependency, to reject what they don’t need, to re-use materials in original ways, to recycle, ... We address also the theme of the water: essential and finite! We will show the water cycle through small games, emphasizing its finitude, how lucky we are for still having access to it, and how easily it can be polluted and gone. To sum up, we would like to encourage them to live a more sustainable life! We make sure to introduce some simple and creative tips, solutions and alternatives for these daily problems. We all should act individually, because together we can make the difference. Teamwork will succeed in these global battles!

This educational program was born thanks to the love and care that all the Futurismo’s family nourishes to this archipelago and to all its patrimony, and the will to share and support social development within our nearest reality!

Maria Fonseca, 2019.

We want our guests satisfied, we won’t stop trying!

Today wasn't an easy day, not for our guests, nor for us, neither for our lookouts. The weather conditions and visibility were not the best for a whale watching tour today.

But we won’t stop trying and everyone will have another opportunity. 😊

We started by travelling to east because one of our lookouts spotted a group of dolphins. Unfortunately, when we arrived to the area, the sea conditions and the visibility from land started to get poor and we couldn't spot the group of dolphins.

We tried to move to another area, and no luck again. In both occasions we tried our hydrophone several times but looked like the dolphins were not communicating.

When we were going back, the other lookout spotted another group of dolphins. We had nothing to lose, so we went to that area and finally spotted a group of common dolphins. They were very curious at the beginning but then they dived and disappeared.

We have always to remember that we work with wild animals, so sometimes it happens for them to be close or sociable, and sometimes happens the opposite. We have also do remember that sometimes our trips start with some weather conditions and a matter of minutes they can change. Everything counts.

After all, we also know that the experience wasn't the expected by our guests, so we offered the opportunity for them to come again with us. Not all the trips are the same, so we expect you here with us soon.

Just like a summer day with dolphins and sperm whales

Today the sky was free of clouds and the sun was shining clearly. The sea was calm and our lookout spotted two different species, but by the end of the morning we had already seen three resident species! 

Firstly we met a big group of common dolphins divided in multiple sub groups where some of the animals were diving deeper, probably to chase the fishes closer to the surface and enclosing it against this physical barrier. At this moment, we started to watch the chasing outside of the water. The seagulls also flew down to the surface of the sea to try to get some of the fishes reunited by the dolphins. 

Further West, outside the limit of the island, we found a group of sperm whales socializing between them and hiding from us. So, after we tried approaching several different individuals that we were spotting at distance, the shallow dives were the general behaviour made by this family. Even though we didn't saw any tail fluking, we did see these animals swimming towards each others, spyhopping and also two juveniles near the adult females taking small dives in what it seemed like nursing behaviour. The sperm whale milk is much fatter than ours so hopefully these juveniles will grow fast and strong! 

Already on our way back, we found a group of bottlenose dolphins that we may be familiarized with. After our arrival, at the office we go through all the photos of the dorsals taken today from the bottlenose, and comparing these fins with our catalog we are able to understand if the individuals are the same ones we were expecting! Also on the way back to the harbour some small groups of common dolphins approached the boat to surf the waves produced by our catamaran Cetus.

Sighting statistics of December 2018

Last December has not been easy! During that month, as we could expect, we have seen the four resident species. 

We sighted the common dolphins on 72% of our tours, bottlenose dolphins and Risso's dolphins, both on 36% of the tours and sperm whales just in 18%! But we have had an amazing surprise!!

On the 6th of December, we saw false killer whales! It was amazing. The last time we spotted this species was on July, so it was great to meet them again!

However, bad weather allowed us to go out to the sea only 11 days, and the sea conditions were not so perfect. Or maybe they were for the animals! Wind and waves have been always present. Well, it is winter in the Azores!

Today a Sperm whale diving and two species of dolphins

The sea has been very calm in the last days in the Azores. Good for us! 

Today, we had the opportunity to see Risso's dolphins stealing squid from the fishermen. They were feeding and always following the fishing boats. The only people who were not excited about this situation were the fishermen, you can imagine why. 😉

We went West, where we saw a large group of common dolphins and in the middle of the birds we discovered a great skua, a juvenile of a northern gannet and one Cory's shearwater. 

Northern Gannet

Our lookout called the boat because they saw a blow! It was a big male sperm whale. But when we arrived, the animal dived. We used the hydrophone to understand were he was going, and also to make it easier to get closer to the area. All our guests helped in the search for our treasure... And it was one of our customers who found him: "Sperm whale behind the boat!"

It was a spectacular sighting that ended with a magnificent tail of a male sperm whale.