Big swell and common dolphins

It is wildlife not a zoo, and we know it. This is what we remind ourselves every time we go out at sea. Today Filipe spotted a sperm whale at around 12 miles from Vila Franca do Campo. It took a deep dive and we were expecting to see the whale coming up after approximately 45 minutes. This is the average time sperm whales stay submerged when dive for foraging. However, it didn’t show up and although we scanned the horizon and waited further there was no whale to be seen. It could have had surfaced further away from where we were. Also, the high swell of today didn’t help much since sea state conditions affect the detection probability, with large waves and swell decreasing the ability to spot animals.

Again, this is wildlife and if it is not one species may be another one. In fact, we found a nice group of common dolphins. They were very calm and stayed next to the boat all the time. They surfaced few times among few drifting Portuguese Man’ O War.