Today we enjoyed a windy and wavy day, with hundreds of dolphins surfing the waves and enjoying their time in the always surprising Atlantic Ocean.
The first species this morning was the bottlenose dolphin, we found a big group of at least 150 individuals. They were foraging when we got to the area. Lots of birds, mainly yellow-legged seagulls, were also in the area with the same purpose.
After some time they got more curious with our boat and we could see some impressive bowriding and jumping behaviors.
We then headed to an area with another species of dolphins. The first ones we found were common dolphins, but just for a minute, after that a big group of Atlantic spotted dolphins appeared and we didn’t see the common dolphins again.
The spotted dolphins were everywhere, spread out in a big area, with some calves in the group. We stayed in the area for some time and we even used our hydrophone because the lookout had seen a blow some time before in that same area.
A hydrophone allows us to listen to our surroundings underwater in order to find whales. We had no luck so we continued enjoying the dolphins for some time before heading back to Ponta Delgada.
On our way back, part of the same group of bottlenose dolphins accompanied us for a while. The rain gave us some time before what it seems it’s going to be a rough week. Beautiful trip today!