azwhales
It was one more special day today. We started with an encounter of the usually difficult Blainville Beaked Whales which gave us today a good chance to see them very well. Beaked whales in general dive often and long and spend very little time at the surface and they rarely approach boats. But this time we got a close enough look to see its head in details. One peculiarity about the Dense Beaked Whales as they are also called is their heavily curved lip line which made us confirm the species.
Later we visited the Bottlenose Dolphins with their calves, it was a familiar group with known individuals which traveled along westwards.
In the afternoon we were amazed by a big pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins which came to our boat to show us their spots at least the mature ones which already have some and also their calves without spots. Then they started the show with some high leaps and a fast traveling behavior which made the water white from all the splashes as they were leaping flat over the surface.
Later we met the same group of Bottlenose dolphins as in the morning which went this time into the opposite direction that’s why they were still in our reach.
Our other catamaran which went to the east saw Pilot Whales and Striped Dolphins before going to the Vila Franca Islet.
Photos by Rafael Martins and David Rodrigues
Spotted dolphins
Blainville’s beaked whale
Blainville’s beaked whale
Sterna dougallii
Bottlenose dolphins
Striped dolphins
Striped dolphins
Striped dolphins
azwhales
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
