azwhales
Yesterday trip brought us far away from our harbour. We went South of Faial Island – our ‘sister island’ – to try to see a Sperm whale the lookouts had sighted. Although the sea was with high and long waves, we were still able to spot its blow from far away.
Sperm whale’s blows are quite different from the ones of baleen whales. As they have the blowhole turned forward at the left side of their heads their expiration blows stay almost horizontally relative to the water’s surface. On these days of high waves, we sometimes struggle to spot the blow from the boat… but this one was quite easy to see! The individual was large, and its blow was great and high.
While the whale was resting at surface in between its deep dives we were observing it and after it dived, we stayed and heard its echolocation clicks as it was going deeper and deeper, into the darkness underneath us! As it arched its back to engage in the deep dive, it showed us the tail. With such a beautiful strait trailing edge without much marks on it, and a completely clean fluke… we imagine this whale – which by its size seemed to be an almost full-grown male – was still young and with a lot of life (hopefully!) awaiting him through its future.
The overall trip was quite beautiful with a view over Faial island and Capelinhos volcano…
Who will join us tomorrow?
azwhales
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
