Curious sperm whales in a calm ocean

Today we enjoyed the company of a group of sperm whales again, maybe the same group that we encountered yesterday afternoon. They were very calm and staying up on the surface for a long time for us to see them well. Several of the whales were also very curious, approaching our boat, rolling over and poking their heads out of the water to have a good look around (a behaviour we call spyhopping). We got to see some tails too, and we could identify them as our most-encountered sperm whale group here in São Miguel – what we refer to as the “red group”. We could identify a sperm whale we call “Orca” and another one we call “Diamond”. Before our sperm whale encounters we also had a brief look at a beaked whale close to shore. A few times it came with its head high out of the water so we could see its arched lower jaw and identify it as a Blainville’s beaked whale. We also enjoyed 2 different groups of common dolphins on our way back to shore at the end of our morning tour.

Our afternoon tour was just as great, with plenty of whales and dolphins to see. Again we encountered several sperm whales very calm at the surface. Again we encountered a calf, the same curious one from the morning. We also encountered a very active group of common dolphins leaping out of the water, and from one of our zodiac boats a turtle was also seen.

Photos from the morning: