Flying Risso’s dolphins and muuch mooore!

It’s no surprise that animals adjust to the surrounding environmental conditions. For example, the sea was a bit choppy today, and the ever so calm Risso’s dolphins seemed to get stoked with that, resulting in some super high jumps!

It was a group of about 10 large adults with some juveniles mixed in. The Atlantic Spotted dolphins were also present again, active as usual. It was a big group of about 100 animals. Hopefully they will stay a bit longer in the Azores this year, as the water is still pretty warm right now. However, someday soon when it cools down they will leave us and move their way to the Southern Atlantic, following warmer waters 🙂

 

Who was also present today, was a large Sei whale! As most times it was very difficult to encounter the Sei whales because they have the tendency to change direction all the time (who knows where they want to go in this life anyway?) and on top of that it is the world’s fastest whale! We did manage to find it, and spend a good amount of time around each other with a good view of the whale!

In the afternoon we encountered the Atlantic Spotted dolphins twice! The first time there were a few of them, but the second time the group was huge, over 200 individuals! They were foraging and there were a lot of seabirds (Cory’s shearwater) around them. Off Ponta Delgada there were few false killer whales and so there we went! They kept swimming around and underneath our boat. false killer whales are about 6 meters long and can be very active and curious, they can even go bowriding! The false killer whales are very likely to strand. There have been strandings of false killer whales for over 800 individuals, so the most things that are studied about them came from the strandings.

 

 

 

Our day didn’t stop here though, as two sperm whales were spotted a bit further away. When we arrived at the area they stayed at the surface for about 10 minutes and eventually took a deep dive which meant for us: that we were able to see their beautiful flukes!

 

Tomorrow holds more surprises! 🙂