Ola’ Whale-Watchers,
what a crazy day we had out there on the Atlantic Ocean! It is not really usual to see baleen whales in summer time, but today we got even more lucky encountering one of the most rarely seen species here in Azores: a Bryde’s Whales (Balaenoptera edeni). It gave us some troubles searching for it in the leftovers of the storm that just passed by, but we managed to have two encounters with what we presume is the same individual spotted some days ago by our colleagues in Ponta Delgada. Good news, the storm did not bother it at all!
Just to give you an idea, the last confirmed sighting on the island of São Miguel was in 2017 with a mother-calf pair that spent several days in our waters (Picture below).
On top of these amazing sigthings, we witnessed huge feeding frenzies with Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella coerulealba) and Common Dolphins (Delphinus delphis) doing the hard work to heard the fish, Cory’s Shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) duck diving and fighting for a snack with Great Shearwaters (Puffinus gravis), and even huge tunas leaping out of the water! On our way back home we even had a Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis) popping up just next to our boat!
Great (left) and Cory’s (right) Shearwaters.
The swell is easing down, the wind too, and we cannot wait to hit the waters again leaving home any expectation, but being ready for the unexpectable! 😉
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