azwhales
Sea calm and plenty of animals out off Sao Miguel this morning. Our lookout sent us to a sperm whale area, but on the way there showed up Minke whales, they were two.
We could recognized them by the white patches on the pectoral fins, on the video you can see it very well. Then we continued heading to the area of sperm whales.
We could identify a sperm whale female named Coconut, we know this thanks of the photo-ID method, and we repeatedly saw this whale and her family members of the white unit during the last weeks. Just recently one of our colleague Miranda van der Linde published a paper about the group structures of the sperm whales off São Miguel. Also we saw dolphins a group of our resident species common dolphin.
In the afternoon the sperm whales were still in the same area, so we went back out there to encounter them again. It was the same family unit as in the morning (that we refer to as the white unit), and we could again identify the one we call “Coconut” as well as “Penakabe” together with a juvenile. From our catamaran we could see Penakabe and the juvenile fluking together, which was a really beautiful moment. Over the past few weeks we have got to know this unit very well and we are happy that they have decided to stay for a while off São Miguel Island. We also re-encountered the big male this afternoon, not too far away from where the females were diving.
Next we encountered a group of common dolphins that included some small calves. The sea was very calm and clear, so it was great conditions to see them through the water as they swam near our boat. One of our boats was also very lucky to encounter some Blainville’s beaked whales.
Beaked whales in general are usually very shy and elusive and often cannot be identified down to the species level. However this time it was a very good encounter and the lucky guests onboard got to see their characteristic arched lower jaws and even the big tusk like teeth that the males have. The final surprise of the day was that the minke whale was hanging around near the entrance of the dock, so it almost felt like it was waiting for us before we returned home.
azwhales
Equipa de Biólogos da Futurismo
Sandrina Rodrigues
