Sandrina RodriguesAfter 3 days with a lot of waves and wind in São Miguel, the day finally arrived that we managed to go to the sea for an observation trip. We left the harbor with our catamaran “4 Ventos” and we quickly realized that it was going to be a difficult trip with adverse conditions.
The swell was still present, with almost 2 meters of southwest swell and wind. Just outside the harbor, we found a group of common dolphins in association with feeding gulls. A small group composed by adult individuals. We were still seeing them when we managed to see some more splashes outside. When we arrive what was our surprise to find bottlenose dolphins! A small but very sociable group, which amazed our views. Our lookout then warned that there was another group of dolphins further west.
After traveling almost 2 miles, we were able to see many feeding cory’s shearwaters along with … atlantic spotted dolphins! Despite the winter day, the sea surface temperature is still warm and they are still around! A nice and curious pod with a lot of newborn calves together with bottlenose dolphins!
We took the opportunity to collect data for our photo identification catalog and what was our surprise when we saw an individual already well known by our biologist’s team for years! We were able to identify “Egyptian”, the bottlenose dolphin with a completely triangular fin, that looks like the pyramids of Egypt. This group of bottlenose dolphins was quite large, although spread out, they were travelling against the swell, jumping quite often!
The conditions were not so easy for us at sea, but also for our lookout. Today there was a lot of fog, resulting on a poor visibility for our watchmen. Although we have not seen whales today, we know that sperm whales are present all year around our island! It was a cold morning but it warmed our soul because we saw 3 different species of dolphins!
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
