Whale ahead, there it blows!

From our zodiac, we started our sightings with a big whale blow seen from the distance after we listened to the underwater sounds with our directional hydrophone. But after we saw the behaviour of this single sperm whale male, it was clear why we didn’t hear it clicking, it was neither looking for food nor communicating with other individuals. It was doing several shallow dives and testing our patience. But when it appeared at the surface our passengers thought that they were two as there was such a striking difference between the head and the back of this adult male. Apart from the bigger size of the males compared with the females we can tell their gender thanks to the following difference. There is no straight line from the head to the back like in the females but a dominant elevation of the front third which is the length of the head. This was clearly visible in this individual and was giving the impression of having two different backs.

As this whale was not hungry we went to look at a friendly group of Atlantic spotted dolphins. Some were spotted as they were already sexually mature and others were still spotless as there are plenty of young ones around. After watching them bowriding and in perfect close up we left them behind and travelled further to the east where there was one more single male sperm whale.

This one was initially behaving in the same way as the first, then it stopped and started breathing very regularly. This was our clue that we can get prepared for the big highlight. After hyperventilating it was ready to discover the depths in search of food and lifted its majestical tail as waving goodbye to us. What an ending to a successful tour. 

From our swimming with dolphin activity bottlenose dolphins were found, so one more species to be added to our sighting list from today

In the afternoon sea conditions allowed us one more unforgettable trip! Our colleagues from the lookouts spotted a group of cetaceans very quickly and they sent us in their direction. And what a sighting did we have! At first it seemed that there is a small group of common dolphins slowly traveling and just enjoying calm waters. But not a lot of time passed by and we were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins, as they just kept coming from all directions! It was truly once in a lifetime experience – being in the middle of so many wild animals that are not minding our presence and are just enjoying their freedom.

After we’ve spent some magical time with common dolphins and their young ones, it was time to leave and to find another species. And again, we had luck, because we found a group of bottlenose dolphins. They didn’t really care about us as they were completely focused on feeding, but even though they amazed us with some big jumps! At the same time our group in zodiac was able to find 2 sperm whales which were cherry on top to our tours today!

And it was not only us that had these beautiful sightings today! Today we also had our first summer boat trip along the coast of Sao Miguel island and also guests on this trip were able to enjoy the presence of dolphins. How lucky we are!