A day full of spots!

 What an adventure today! As every day, we go out to the sea wondering which surprises are waiting for us. Today was a bit wavy but it didn’t prevent us from finding some animals out in the ocean.

Today was the day of the Atlantic spotted dolphins, one of our seasonal species that come to the Azores in summer once the water is warm enough for them. We could also enjoy the calves travelling along side their mums. We had the chance to see the “spotties” in different times as well as different behaviours, from bow riding and playing with our boat, to travelling fast and jumping at the same time.

The spotted dolphins are quite easy to recognize and distinguish from other species of dolphins due to their colouration. In the same pod we can see dolphins just grey, and some others with black and white spots on their bodies. This is because when they are born they are completely grey as they get older, they gain this characteristic pigmentation.

These animals were spotted thanks to our lookouts, placed in some strategic points on the south coast of the island using powerful binoculars and in continuous contact with us.
We tried our best but today we only managed to find groups of this species.
 We were lucky to watch them in such a social and playing behaviour!!