August sighting statistics 2010

On our whale watching and dolphin swimming tours during the month of August we have seen 8 different cetacean species (dolphins and whales). The above graph summarises the percentage of days that we were able to see each species throughout the entire month. The highest sighting rate goes to the Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) which were sighted every day of the month that we went out. As expected, we have also had relatively high sighting rates of our resident dolphins: the bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and common dolphins (Delphinus delphis). August is usually a good month to see many sperm whales in the Azores. Although the sighting rate for sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) wasn´t as high as expected, we still saw them on more than half of the days that we went out. We have also had several good days that we had bonus encounters with striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), Risso´s dolphins (Grampus griseus), pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and even some elusive beaked whales (Mesoplodon sp.). Hopefully the next month will bring many more sightings.