Playing Hide&Seek

Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in front of the coast of Ponta Delgada

 

Olá é bom dia Whale Watchers! 🙂

On this nice and sunny September morning we had a great tour as always. Right at the beginning of the tour, we found a group of Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus), which were off the coast of Ponta Delgada. We can’t say for sure how many individuals were in the area, as the several Whales were shallow diving a lot. As soon as we had seen one of them, it decided to dive again and disappear under the water surface. After some time a group of four animals decided to stay at the surface, so we were able to observe them for a while. 😀 It was probably a family or a group of females with their juveniles.

 

 

As we didn’t want to disturb the group any further, we decided to look for another species. Fortunately, our lookout Filipe was able to find a large group of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis) at the eastern end of the island. The migratory species honoured its reputation and was, as always, in a good mood.  😀 The dolphins swam happily around and under our boat and from time to time you could see them trying to catch a glimpse of the boat.

 

 

The group of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins had a lot of juveniles among them. Just like the Sperm Whales before, the Dolphins were shallow diving every now and then. We had to keep our eyes on the ocean, trying to find out where they would appear again. It felt a little bit like playing hide and seek today! But it never took a long time for them to come back to the surface for a deep breath again. 😉

 

On our afternoon tour we also saw Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), such as Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis) again.