azwhales
At the great depths of the Ocean’s bottom, life signs seem to be scarce but gladly there are lots of different geological benthonic forms that help increasing its diversity. Around the Azorean archipelago, the hydrothermal vents release nutrients into the water’s column and the seamounts – together with the valleys they create – influence the cold Ocean’s bottom currents, bringing them upwards with all the nutrients they retain. With these trades and movements, the poor oligotrophic open Ocean’s environment will be enriched and therefore life will bloom at the surroundings of this mounts.
Today, we travelled to a seamount over the south of Pico Island to explore the Ocean’s life. We roamed through and around it and there, we found a quite active pod of common dolphins that surrounded our boat and stayed with us for a lot of time. With our hydrophone, everyone onboard were able to ear them communicating and echolocating the space around us.
They got really curious about the boat and the hydrophone that was inside the water! We observed females with calves bowriding the waves we were creating, and we saw some older and more marked individuals as well.
They got really curious about the boat and the hydrophone that was inside the water! We observed females with calves bowriding the waves we were creating, and we saw some older and more marked individuals as well.
With the hydrophone and speaker, we were also able to ear one sperm whale echolocating and foraging, so we waited for it to surface. Unfortunately, the animal was changing a lot its direction, so we left the area and navigated back to our beautiful island.
azwhales
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
