azwhales
The morning sunshine gave us a quick reminder that it is still summer! We stopped at a couple of shy Risso’s dolphins that seemed to be diving a lot.
Afterwards we headed towards some playful bottlenose dolphins.
We did not stay there for too long because we had another surprise waiting for us. Our lookout had seen pilot whales! And we saw 2 large pods of pilot whales.
They had calves and juveniles in the pod as well, and some of them were shooting through the surface; a behavior we don’t see too often. They were diving for a long time as well, so they were most likely foraging in this area. Another great morning with 3 different species!
Sun kept shining even stronger in the afternoon. We went out even more motivated and we got some great sightings.
We headed east to find first an active group of Atlantic spotted dolphins.
The water was so clear that we could follow their hydrodynamic bodies under the water surface perfectly and appreciate their spotty skin.
After that, we change direction to find a numerous group of common dolphins.
We were able to get some great pictures for Photo-ID purposes. We have just begun a really interesting and promising study to get to know more about this species’ spatial and temporal distribution, population size and habitat preference.
The last surprise of the day was a group of sperm whales that delighted us with two beautiful flukes and an extremely curious calf that kept on swimming around our catamaran 4 Ventos. It was so close that we could see all its wrinkles and its still bent dorsal fin.
What a profitable afternoon!
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| Sperm whale calf |
Today we had the honour of having Frederike from Sharkproject.org on board to tell us interesting facts about the sharks for example, that there are currently about 530 species known but still new ones were recently discovered.
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| Foto: María Huamán |
The Azores are a really important habitat for many species like the blue shark, mako or the thresher shark and if you would like to help them, you can sign the following petition which is about a marine sanctuary where shark will be protected.
With this petition you do not only help the sharks, but also mankind. The sharks are playing a key role and if we would lose the sharks, the ecosystem would not be balanced anymore which directly effects us too. So if you like to be part of creating an healthy, ocean please sign. https://www.sharkproject.org/en/the-azores-green-paradise-blue-sea-wonderful-nature-with-one-mistake/
Check out www.sharkproject.org or www.facebook.com/Sharkproject to get more information.
azwhales
Equipa de Biólogos da Futurismo
Sandrina Rodrigues
