A morning of sperm whales!

On a bright and calm morning, we set off on the catamaran not knowing what was in store for us but with enthusiasm and high expectations to see as many species as possible.

We had to move to the east of the island to find our first animal of the day. Within minutes we had two female sperm whales together on the surface, breathing repeatedly, regaining their strength to return to the deep. There was no doubt that these were females as their large heads lacked the characteristic prominence that is present in males. These females left us and did a mid-water dive without showing us their tails, which means that they were not going to feed and that the dive was not going to be very long.

While we were waiting for the females to return to the surface, three more sperm whales appeared near us, another two females and a calf. These animals maintained the same behaviour as the previous ones but in this case, when it was time to say goodbye, both females showed their tails one after the other before doing a deep dive to eat. The calf decided to stay with us a little longer and showed its whole body many times until it decided to come back with the others, also showing us its tail, this time smaller. What a wonderful wild world! A few minutes later we saw another calf to our right with a different behaviour, the animal was travelling fast and unlike the previous ones did not seem comfortable in our presence. Then we decided to leave and change our area. The animals come first.

Already in another area, we could see a small group of bottlenose dolphins around our boat. They were scattered, continuously changing direction. Some individuals came closer and swam in our bow showing us their robust greyish body. Just at that moment, two more sperm whales appeared together with the dolphins. It was a curious and wonderful sight as this association between the two species is not seen every day. The sperm whales were a large female and her calf. It seemed that the calf was being suckled by the female, what an incredible and beautiful thing! Moreover, after the female went in search of food and showed us her tail, we were able to confirm thanks to the comparison of the pictures of the tails taken by one of our biologists on board, that this animal was one of the ones we had seen an hour ago.

That was the end of our amazing trip today… full of females, calves and TAILS. Our colleagues who went out on one of the zodiacs this morning had the opportunity to be with another kind of dolphins, the common dolphin, one of the species that can be seen in the archipelago all year round.

After this stunning day with three of our resident species we are already thinking about our next adventure, will you join us?