We could hear them feeding!

Today it was a beautiful morning with a calm sea. The visibility was quite good, and we spent all the trip with Santa Maria’s Island visible in the horizon. 

Today our sea was full of common dolphins. We were with two different groups and both were quite big, of about one hundred dolphins with juveniles also present. This species is quite curious with the boat and loves to bow-ride the bow of "Cetus", our catamaran. As they surfed along with the boat we could see them so close, what a beautiful sighting it was!

The last group we found was foraging along the Cory’s shearwaters. The birds stayed floating at surface always looking under the surface of the sea and ready to feed opportunistically on the fishes dolphins were "gathering" into a bait ball. In this moment we put our hydrophone inside the water connected to our sound system so all of us could hear the whistling communication and clicking echolocation of the dolphins as they were feeding! It is quite a beautiful sound. 

Lastly, we could spot one ‘’black edition’’ common dolphin- this dolphin instead of having four colours just had three! Black, white and grey lacking the yellow part on the side of the body.

First blue whale of the season!

Today we had two amazing trips, on the catamaran through the morning and on one of our zodiacs at the afternoon. 

In the morning the sea was amazing and the visibility was quite good. We could find three different species, all of them part of our resident species. The common dolphins were as calm as the sea but curious as always, also as the bottlenose dolphins were.  We were able to spot some of the resident bottlenose of our waters and on the same pod as them, lots of juveniles – what a big pod, around 100 individuals! 

Risso’s dolphins are typically much more shy with the boat, but still we could observe them really well, both the big white males together with (at least) one female and a juvenile.

On the afternoon we had an amazing trip because we saw the FIRST BLUE WHALE OF THE SEASON! As we were with a pod of bottlenose dolphins our lookout spotted a big blow from the distance and we navigated up to the area hoping to see it. After whale waiting for some minutes -BAM!- the big expiration of the whale at the distance! Blow blow!! And so we went to get together with this beautiful animal, the biggest one on the earth. We saw it quite well for several times and although it was a little bit shy it still showed us a part of its tail.

Common dolphins and loggerhead turtles

This morning, the sea was still a bit rough but surely it was full of life! Our lookout spotted a big group of common dolphins feeding among Cory's shearwater, who are always seeking to get some of the fish that dolphins had reunited near the surface! 

After enjoying for a bit, we left the pod and moved farther offshore, hoping to see other species from our Atlantic Ocean, but we kept finding more sub-groups of common dolphins. 

On the way back, our zodiac boat spotted a lonely shy bottlenose dolphin that dived and disappeared.

During the afternoon trip, we had to move far East, but it was worth it! We saw common dolphins really curious about us, also having feeding behaviors and splashing their bodies against the surface of the sea! In this group, there were juveniles and small calves bow ridding! 

On our way back, we were delighted by the beautiful islet of Vila Franca do Campo. From the catamaran Cetus, people spotted some loggerhead turtles, so we hope big baleen whales will arrive shortly!

Dolphins, Cory's shearwaters and a Sunfish!

This morning, we finally had good weather so we could go out to the ocean. 

Our first surprise on the way out was a sunfish that we spotted from aboard our catamaran. This unusual looking fish is the largest bony fish in the world, reaching up to about 1,000 kg in weight. 

Further along the coastline, we had plenty of dolphins to see. First, we encountered some playful bottlenose dolphins who seemed to be enjoying accompanying our boats. 

A bit further, there was a group of common dolphins, spread out over a large area. 

We also spotted quite a few Cory's shearwaters today, which is a good sign that Spring is just around the corner.

March welcoming us with sperm whales and common dolphins

After all the stormy rainy weather that has been reaching the Azores for the last two weeks, we had a beautiful striking trip! 

Today, the sun was shining through a clean sky and some shearwaters were already scanning the water surface (and the great skuas still passing by!). The sea was still fierce full but totally worth the adventure! 

We started by observing a group of common dolphins spotted by our lookout. When we arrived, the group was scattered around in small sub groups getting the fish together and chasing actively the bait balls. 

It is quite a challenge to photo-identify this species because they move very actively and most often in numerous groups, but due to some deep specific marks on one of the dorsal fins, we could recognize from past sightings one of the individuals on this group. 

After some moments together with these curious dolphins, we started travelling West, receiving after some minutes more good news from the lookout! Sperm Whales! 

We spotted the blows at distance and understood, right after our arrival, that one of the individuals was a big bull with a strange head shape (in fact, quite like a peanut) but we cannot be sure about what caused this huge mark. Together with this big male, there were (at least) more 6 other sperm whales travelling all together.

Did you know that sperm whales have big gender differences in body size and weight? Males can grow at least more 5m than the females and weight more 40 tons! Also, most often their heads have a hump because of all the spermaceti fluid, responsible for their strong echolocation clicks!

Sighting statistics of February 2019

Along most of February the sea was rough, mainly with high waves and great winds from the storms that reached up to the islands. Although, looking back to the beginning of the month, we can recall some sunny days. 

Everytime the sea enabled us, we went to enjoy its observation, and so this month we saw both the first gannet and first shearwater of the year, and the gannet was still a juvenile! Also, we spotted Great Skuas more frequently than expected - had sighted almost 10 in just one of the trips! 

As for the cetaceans, we observed Risso’s dolphins including some members of our resident Risso’s catalogue. Common dolphins groups were seen in almost every trip and in some of these groups, we had the chance to spot juveniles. Bottlenose dolphins were also spotted as well as female groups of sperm whales, at least one big male and some juveniles! Besides all the resident species, this month we also saw our first baleen whales of the year! Two fin whales which delighted us with their mesmerizing size.