Feeding time for the common dolphins

Today, our morning trip was full of adventure. When the wind and waves are more powerful, we have the opportunity to really feel the strong environment of the sea. This morning, the waves were mixing up the Ocean’s surface waters which is also a good opportunity for the birds to go feed. So we had Cory’s shearwaters scanning the water surface, moving along with our boat and fishing among the dolphins. In the middle of all the Shearwaters, we spotted an ‘infiltrated’ great Skua.

Today, we found two different pods of common dolphins. In the first pod, we found small calves that must have been born just a few months ago and we also saw some bigger juveniles.

In the second group, we found bigger individuals but after a while the small ones also joined us. From the zodiac boat we could identify feeding behaviours and whistling communications. On our catamaran “4 Ventos” (4 winds) our guests were able to spot mating behaviours between the dolphins.

All the toothed marine mammals, like dolphins and sperm whales, produce echolocation clicks. The human ear cannot perceive high frequency sounds but our hydrophone is able to receive it! Along the trip, we were gradually stopping to hear the sounds of the surrounding Ocean with this tool and try to identify the high pitched ones but unfortunately it was not possible today, it seemed like there were just dolphins in our range of hearing !

Our way back was near the beautiful coastline with the sun warming us. We had the opportunity to pass near some beautiful sedimentary domes at the South coast of São Miguel Island.