{"id":1124,"date":"2015-12-31T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whalewatchingazores.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/31\/2015-sighting-statistics\/"},"modified":"2019-11-22T22:34:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T22:34:40","slug":"2015-sighting-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whalewatchingazores.com\/blog\/2015-sighting-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 sighting statistics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n2015 has been another excellent year for whale and dolphin watching off S\u00e3o Miguel Islands in the Azores. This cetacean hotspot in the middle of the north Atlantic ocean attracts a huge diversity of whale and dolphin species, and this year was definitely a diverse year. Across the seasons this year we encountered a total of 16 different species!<\/div>\n
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\nAs is expected the 3 most encountered species throughout the year were 3 of our resident species: the common dolphin<\/a>, bottlenose dolphin<\/a> and sperm whale<\/a>. Next in line was the fin whale<\/a>, one of the spring time migratory whales that appears to be on the increase in the Azores in recent years. Our sightings graph below summarises the sighting frequencies of all species throughout the year. The best part is that this year during all our tours we had a 100% success rate. That means that during every tour at least one species of whale or dolphin was encountered! <\/div>\n
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\nOur list of other species we spotted this year includes many loggerhead turtles<\/a>, leatherback turtles<\/a> (2015 was a record year for leatherbacks!), sunfish<\/a>, devil rays<\/a>, hammerhead sharks<\/a>, blue sharks<\/a>, tuna<\/a>, spearfish<\/a> and marlin<\/a>, flying fish<\/a>, flying squid…and last but not least an extensive list of seabirds, with the Cory’s shearwater<\/a> being the most encountered one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\nSighting frequencies of cetaceans seen in 2015, in descending order:<\/p>\n