azwhales
Today the sky was free of clouds and the sun was shining clearly. The sea was calm and our lookout spotted two different species, but by the end of the morning we had already seen three resident species!
Firstly we met a big group of common dolphins divided in multiple sub groups where some of the animals were diving deeper, probably to chase the fishes closer to the surface and enclosing it against this physical barrier. At this moment, we started to watch the chasing outside of the water. The seagulls also flew down to the surface of the sea to try to get some of the fishes reunited by the dolphins.
Further West, outside the limit of the island, we found a group of sperm whales socializing between them and hiding from us. So, after we tried approaching several different individuals that we were spotting at distance, the shallow dives were the general behaviour made by this family. Even though we didn’t saw any tail fluking, we did see these animals swimming towards each others, spyhopping and also two juveniles near the adult females taking small dives in what it seemed like nursing behaviour. The sperm whale milk is much fatter than ours so hopefully these juveniles will grow fast and strong!
Already on our way back, we found a group of bottlenose dolphins that we may be familiarized with. After our arrival, at the office we go through all the photos of the dorsals taken today from the bottlenose, and comparing these fins with our catalog we are able to understand if the individuals are the same ones we were expecting! Also on the way back to the harbour some small groups of common dolphins approached the boat to surf the waves produced by our catamaran Cetus.
azwhales
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
