Sightings Statistics July 2020

July has been the first month since March 15th that we could go out to the sea due to the coronavirus’ situation. But it was worth the wait!

Although we have not seen as many dolphins as we were used to, we have been able to spot several sei whales! Sei whales are mostly spotted in the Azores in late spring and beginning of summer, as you can see on our studies about their distribution here and here. However, some of them have been waiting for us to go back to the ocean so that we can see them migrating, even some with their calves, to colder waters. And if that was not enough, we could watch several days sei whales feeding with their mouth open, filtering the water with their baleen plates, which trapped some small fish to feed on!

Another species that we have seen during this month was the sperm whale. During the first whale watching tours after the confinement we had the opportunity to observe our friend Mr. Liable, a big male sperm whale who can be sighted throughout the year in our waters. This month, we could see him with maybe a new girlfriend beside?

We also saw smaller species but not less spectacular, such as the common dolphin, the Atlantic spotted dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin. However, they have not been sighted as often as in previous years but we could see them with their young swimming and jumping. 

Finally, we can highlight the sighting of a whale shark! It is the world’s biggest fish and it can reach 15 meters long and weigh more than 10 tons! The one we saw was maybe around 6-7 meters, so not small at all! It is a very special sighting since we have not seen any of them properly for about 10 years. It was a very special moment for all of us who were on board. 

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