Pilot whales

Hello dear whale watchers,

Even if it was quite windy today, we went out with great excitement! From our lookout, we knew that pilot whales were in the area! Yuhuuu

But one after another. The first sighting we had today, were spotted dolphins. As usual they were very curious and approached the boat for a while.

Atlantic Spotted dolphins coming to check out the boat (Stenella frontalis)

Afterwards, we came into the area of Risso`s dolphins. However, the group was travelling and diving a lot, therefore it was not so easy to observe them this time. Next time maybe… 😉

Risso’s dolphin surfacing with a plastic bag stuck onto its dorsal fin (Grampus griseus)

Leaving the cost behind us into direction of the pilot whales, it became in addition to the wind, pretty wavy. It was not easy to detect the fines of the whales between the waves. Nevertheless, we managed and found a group of at least 20 pilot whales. This species can be recognized on their dorsal fin, which is rounded with a shallow angle and is set forward on the body. They have a melon head without beak, which they sometimes showed us coming up to the surface with their head first.

It was really nice to observe them! However, we did not stay too long with them, as the boat was moving a lot up and down due to the waves and the wind.