Dolphins and a big blow today!

As The Beatles’ song says: Here comes the sun! It’s the perfect title for today! A new sunny day warming us up in São Miguel! While we slowly left Ponta Delgada on the way to the giant blue, Mafalda one of our biologists on board was explaining what can we expect from some of the most charismatic species of our ocean and possible surprises that we could have! Here we went as ready as never for everything!

As soon as we were at the open ocean our lookout André was excited to let us know that he was sighting two baleen whales!! We also got really excited! To have baleen whales in the Azores for these days is an uncommon event, so we were very lucky to get it!

We arrived in the area which was very close to the island (a quarter of a mile from the coast). So anxious to see that we started looking for them everywhere straightaway! After what it look like 10 long minutes, a big blow appeared close to us, Rafa, our skipper, turned on the engine! We got closer but they dived again and left us. We tried to find them again following all the instructions of our lookout who was on land spotting every single movement! However, the whales were too shy today, doing dives from 9 to 13 min, sometimes even more!

But the day just had started. We found the fun-loving of the sea, dolphins! About 50 common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) joined us. Adults and juveniles were so calm, they were swimming, jumping, and bow riding with us! We took all the pictures, as much as we could to keep updating the photo-identification research that we carry on! In every journey, we also take the opportunity and take data about its behavior, spatial position, and number of individuals! A lot to do but all to better understand and protect these wonderful animals and their habitat!

We left them and went for a look around the Villa Franca islet! It was amazing to appreciate one of the Azores’ treasures! The islet is a natural reserve that offers nesting ground to different marine birds, of which the cory’s shearwater. We only saw a few of them because at this time of the year most of the juveniles already left and started their journey to the wide-open ocean. Despite that, we had a good time there before coming back!

Every story is made by all of you and the wonders of nature! Thank you once again to come with us and enjoy the ocean wildlife in a responsible way! Do you want to be next and let the sun shine on your face while sighting cetaceans? Do not wait any more, come and live an unforgettable autumn with us!