All our trips today have been enjoying the sight of thousands of Atlantic spotted dolphins! At one point we could see dolphins to the horizon, a super pod spread out over a huge area. It’s great to see the dolphins like this in the summer months, with plenty of young animals in their groups, swimming alongside our boats and showing off with acrobatics.

We’ve also been noticing the large number of great Shearwaters (Puffinus Gravis, above) in the area at the moment. These birds follow a circular migratory route up the Eastern seaboard of South and North America before crossing the Atlantic in August. They can be also be seen quite commonly off the south-western coast of Great Britain and Ireland before heading back down the Eastern littoral of the Atlantic to their breeding sites on islands in the South Atlantic. Here we’ve been observing them feeding at the surface with spotted and common dolphins, you can see above one bird ducking its head into the water checking for small fish.. Click here for a excerpt from the log of The Odyssey when they encountered great Shearwaters on their voyage and a great explanation of the Mid-Atlantic ridge which we’re a part of here in the Azores.