First fin whales of the year!

Finally, after some rainy days, the sun came out and we could go to the ocean! And with the sun came the animals. We started with a very active group of bottlenose dolphins. They were playing with our boats, bowriding,  and jumping. 

After some minutes with them, we had the information from our lookout that we should start moving East if we wanted to see bigger animals. So we started going, and after 40 minutes travelling, we had a surprise: 2 fin whales, the first ones of this season! They were doing dives of around 10 minutes, and blowing just 3 or 4 times, but they delighted us with their huge size. Fin whales are the second largest animal of the world, reaching around 28 meters. Those ones may have been around 20 meters long.

Pico sighting statistics, 2018

Since 2004, Futurismo has been present in Pico Island. Since then, whale watching and swimming with dolphins tours have been run around the island, although not continuously. During the last two years, our seasonal activity became more consistent, allowing us to record more standardised and useful data about cetacean occurrence around the island.

Our new base is located on the South coast of the island at the council of Lajes do Pico. There, you will encounter our zodiac, called Alfredo Baleeiro to honour one of the whaling lookouts, which carries up to 16 people onboard. You can join us from early Spring to early Autumn, to explore this beautiful Ocean that surrounds us. 

The analysis of the cetacean observations we made last season (April-October 2018) is already done and from it we have been able to denote some parities with the island of São Miguel. Along these 7 months, we saw 17 of the 28 total species described to date for the Azorean archipelago (Fig. 1 & 2). The 17 species can be classified as resident, which have been observed quite regularly, migratory such as baleen whales and also migratory such as pilot whales and spotted dolphins that come only to stay for the warm months.

Fig. 1: Map of Pico Island with all the species sighted

The most sighted species was the Risso’s dolphin. This unusual opportunistic feeder dolphin is already well-known by Pico’s fishermen who call it ‘the miller’ ("moleiro" in Portuguese) as they are born of a brownish gray color that will be partially replaced by white scars throughout their life; or as in the case of males these scars can cover almost completely full parts of their body, making them seem that have been grinding cereals to make flour. As in São Miguel, at Pico island we can also find resident groups of Risso’s that stay throughout most of the year in the area. Probably they can find over here the resources they need for survival. So far, there have been identified as residents three different groups of males and 1 group of females.

Our second most sighted species throughout the season is also a resident one. It is the largest toothed whale, which holds one of the biggest brains in the animal kingdom and emits the highest biological sound (sonar) in our atmosphere, the sperm whale! These two resident species share affinities in their diets as they both feed preferentially on squids, which for now are quite abundant around here, from the twilight to abyssal depths, near the slope of the islands. Also, during summer months, the huge and serene pilot whales –big dolphins that form really stable families- migrate here in large numbers to pass the warm season. Alike our two most abundant residents (sperm whale and Risso’s dolphin), the body of pilot whales are already well adapted to forage squids at high depths surrounded by darkness.

Common dolphins were our third most frequently sighted species. These animals are the most abundant species in the warm and temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean. They have a small body (biggest males attaining 2,5 m) but form numerous pods in which we could also spot, throughout many of the encounters, associations with striped dolphins.

During Spring months, the great migratory baleen whales arrive here. Most of the individuals travel solitary or in small groups and sometimes accompanied by their young. They come from Atlantic’s warmer and tropical waters where they wintered, calved and reproduced. When the waters start to get warmer, they begin roaming up to the North’s colder waters where they will feed during the not-so-cold summer. In these spring months, from April to June, in 61.7% of the days we went out to the sea we have sight fin whales, 42.55% of them we sighted blue whales and 12.77% sei whales.

After Spring, when water’s temperature got up close to the 20ºC the spotted dolphins arrived. They remain here until the temperatures of the water lower again. Although they stayed only for an average of 5 months (from June to the end of October), they were our fourth most-sighted species throughout all the season.

We must also note the frequent encounters with Sowerby's beaked whales during the warm months surpassed those of previous years. Other member we sighted of this family of cetaceans, the Ziphiidae family, is the Cuvier's beaked whale, which nowadays holds the record for the longest and the deepest dive, of 2 hours and 18 minutes at 2,993m. They are quite shy and sound sensitive animals. Most of times, we had encountered them by chance as they were emerging from the water near our boat, or because of their summerly high jumps which can be seen from great distances, sometimes even several individuals jumping at the same time!

Less frequent species here were also sighted, such as the Humpback whales or the Pygmy sperm whale.

These were some of the cetaceans observations we made in 7 months along the south coast of Pico Island, but throughout the season, it was also possible to observe quite a few common turtles and Portuguese man o’ war, mainly during Springtime. We also spotted several species of sharks and rays, including a whale shark and several manta rays that delighted us with their size and serenity, several species of birds, mostly Cory´s shearwater, large schools of fish and many other species that gave us the opportunity to observe them as appeared close to the surface of the sea.

We hope to continue with these great sightings for the 2019 season!

Fig. 2: All of the species and the frequencies of the sightings along the 7 months of the season

Always an educational experience! And ready for the next time!

As for this week the weather forecast is not very promising, we decided to try our luck today through the mist. And we tried, but this time, we didn't succeed. Visibility was not good from land due to the fog, and our lookouts did find some dolphins not far from the coast, but from the boat we didn't see them. Sometimes it happens!

Did you know that the methodology we use nowadays to find the animals comes from the whaling times? Two hundred years ago they worked exactly the same way, with people with binoculars looking from land.

Lookout spotting cetaceans with binoculars, just like two centuries ago

But, nature and wildlife are unpredictable! We never know what we can find, as whales and dolphins in the Azores are wild and move all the time. Even though, now in winter, we have good chances to see our resident species (among them, the sperm whale) and sometimes, even some unexpected ones, such as the humpback whale last month.

Lookout using binoculars

So, we must always be ready in order to maximize our chances to enjoy a boat trip in the open ocean. To avoid seasickness, we recommend you always to have breakfast. Yes! Eat something before going out! Your body needs energy, and apples, banana or bread are very good options. Avoid heavy meals, chorizo, orange juice or ananas. Once onboard, we recommend you to stay outside and enjoy the fresh air and the ocean view. We will be always there to help you!

Calm sea and active Common Dolphins

What a beautiful sea. When we left Ponta Delgada, it seemed like a calm summer day, as if it was not cold! It did not take too long to find our first species. 

Indeed, 15 minutes after departure, we found our first Common Dolphins group. They were very curious, in the bow of our boat as if they wanted to play with the children who were there calling them. 

We left the area to try to see something different, but we found common dolphins again and several Great Skuas in the area. 

Since we had already seen the dolphins very well, we turned off the boat and put the hydrophone in the water to see if the dolphins were communicating between them. We heard some whistles but they were not very communicative. 

We tried to hear something else but we were not lucky enough, so we decided to go out for a bit longer, because those who do not take risks cannot win. We took a big step further off the coast but unfortunately we didn't find anything else. We returned home with our cameras full of common dolphins and great skuas pictures.

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?