A feeling of tranquility on a flat sea today, but very active animals everywhere 😀

We had the chance to observe different species of dolphins today! A dolphin is not “just” a dolphin. Each species are different and our whalewatchers could see the differences between them 🙂

We started our trip by saying “good morning” to our best friends: Common dolphins! They were feeding with their henchmen, Cory’s Shearwaters, everywhere around. It was a big group of about 100 individuals, cooperating between adults, juvenils and calves to catch as many fishes as possible 😉

 

 

Then, a lovely group of Atlantic spotted dolphins played around our boat. Same template as Common dolphins, but different color pattern. These 2 species can not be confuse with anyone else 🙂

 

Adult Atlantic spotted dolphin with a special coloration on the head

 

Atlantic spotted dolphin – notice the light spots typical of the species

 

Atlantic spotted dolphin family with very young calves

 

Atlantic spotted dolphin mothers with their calves

 

 

We could see from far away, an active group of Bottlenose dolphins! They were jumping high as they can – remember Flipper – so, easy to spot 😉 They do acrobatic jump for two reasons. First, it is to socialize 🙂 Second, to put off parasite from their skin!

 

 

Striped dolphins, migratory species as Spotted dolphins, were resting, all together. Did you know that, when they are resting or sleeping, dolphins and whales have only half of the brain which is sleeping ? The second half of the brain is still awake because they don’t breathe automaticaly as we do. They have to think to go up at the surface to breathe! Moreover, this way of sleeping probably saved their lifes many times from potential predators! As a part of the brain is on alert, they can escape in case of danger.

And finaly, the day ended with Beaked whales! We could only see them from afar as these whales are highly sensitive and shy. As deep diving whales, their most developed sense is hearing – deep underwater is very dark and they can’t rely on vision! Therefore they can sometimes get scared with the noise of the boat. It was amazing to see them as it is not everywhere in the world that you can see them this close to the coast 😀

 

Sowerby’s beaked whales

 

So, a lot of toothed species today, and even a flying fish! When do you want to join ? 😉

Marine

About Marine

Marine is Marine Biologist and was Marine Wildlife Guide at TERRA AZUL in 2017. She is now wondering the World and discovering new things! We hope soon she'll get back in touch to share, and to help update this profile.

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