Resident to the Azores

Today we had a tour only in the morning and it was marvelous! During this tour we saw the four resident species of cetaceans of the Azores: common dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, Risso’s dolphin and sperm whale. The morning started with a group of common dolphins feeding together with Cory’s shearwaters and Manx shearwaters, near to the coast (three miles) and 15 minutes from Ponta Delgada. The next species was the bottlenose dolphin. We sighted a big pod of bottlenose dolphins and loggerhead turtle nearby. We were enjoying these impressive cetaceans when our lookout told us of the existence of sperm whales. The whales were 12 miles of coast, but the trip worth it. The sperm whales (four) where curious and one of our zodiacs had the honor to be approached by a small sperm whale calf. On the way back we spotted a pod of Risso’s dolphins that challenged our knowledge since they didn’t show the usual shyness.

Photos from today.