Lots of Sperm whales and beautiful Risso's dolphins in São Miguel

What a day!!! We left the harbour not knowing really what we were going to find.

Our lookouts could only spot a group of dolphins and nothing else was at sight. But as always, our expectations were high, as the waters of Azores are always surprising us. And how they surprised us today!!!
Three minutes was the time needed to find our first species of the day. A group of bottlenose dolphins came to greet us and give us good morning. What a way to start our morning.

We did not see one, but two groups of around 20 individuals, not far away from each other. Both delighted us as only they know how to do: bow riding with us, showing off their bodies and some even jumping sideways.
While watching these wonderful animals, one of our lookouts sighted a group of sperm whales off Ponta Garça, a town in the southeast of São Miguel. And there we went! 13 nautical miles was what we were expecting to do to go and see the biggest toothed predator on earth.

On our way our skipper Rafa sighted a fin. But not just any fin, a Risso’s dolphin fin! What was a Risso’s dolphin doing alone? They live in groups on average of 3 to 12 individuals, sometimes more. Therefore, we knew that the rest of the group was somewhere nearby but where, we did not know, we could not see any.

Soon, we left and only half a mile later, we found its mates, the group of Risso’s. But not any group, our resident group, the one identified to live off the South Coast of São Miguel. It was the perfect opportunity to talk about this species and show their unique characteristics, such as their body scars and bulbous, squarish head.

After having a good time with them, we returned to our original route. And this time we got to our destination! We found the sperm whales. I have said already, and will say again, the Azores waters are always surprising us! We ran into a group of male sperm whales! 6 of them!

Here in the Azores, sperm whales are known as a resident species, we can find them all year round. Females and their young live in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical waters. Males tend to spend much of their time in latitudes higher than 40º, coming to warm-water breeding grounds to mate.

There are five main types of social groups within sperm whales:

1) family unit, consisting of about 10 females and their young;

2) Temporary cohesive group, consisting of two or more-family units;

3) clan, containing many family units;

4) bachelor school, young males that live their family unit on reaching sexual maturity

5) lone adult males.

And we found 6 adult males together! Where does this fits in? What were they doing? We are not sure. A new study led by Hayao Kobayashi found that although the majority of male sperm whales spend most of their time alone, some spend at least some of their time in all-male groups or pairs. One explanation for this might be that improves the animals’ ability to survive. We took the opportunity to put our hydrophone in the water, and what we found was that they were communicating between each other. How amazing is this!

It was time to start our way back to Ponta Delgada. But not before we encounter again our resident group of Risso’s. This time however they had a huge, tiny surprise for us. A newborn! How wonderful was to see this little one traveling next to its mother and showing some curiosity towards us! An amazing way to finish our tour.