August 2013 sighting statistics

What a summer month with lots of cetaceans, but still with a springtime feeling because we have had many sightings of Bryde’s whales (a baleen whale that doesn’t migrate like the other rorquals during springtime, they stay in lower latitudes and are therefore also known as the tropical whale). Last month we had out first sighting of a Bryde’s whale since 2008 and luckily our encounters with this species continued this month. Also we have had more sightings of Northern bottlenose whales and other beaked whales too, including breaching Sowerby’s beaked whales (see video HERE). All in all we have sighted 8 species this month, 9 including an unidentified beaked whale encounter. And of course lots of encounters with our resident whale; the sperm whale with many familiar flukes, our famous “Mr. Liable” has been around and one day “Sumo wrestler” gave us a splendid show with breaching and lobtailing. We have seen other species around as well, a few encounters with hammerhead sharks, devil rays (see photos HERE), loggerhead turtles and during the dolphins feeding frenzies we have seen lots of blue marlins and tuna (yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna and bluefin tuna) as well as plenty of sea birds Cory’s shearwaters, great shearwaters, Macaronesian shearwaters, yellowlegged seagulls and common terns.