Sightings Summary March 2019

An male Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) cruises with its pod along Vila Franca do Campo shores.

March has been an amazing month to be on the waters around Sao Miguel Island! The weather was more clement than during February and we had the chance to go out at sea almost every day 🙂

TerraAzul sightings on March 2019. Source: MONICET.

Common Dolphins (Delphinus delphis) have been sighted the most by Terra Azul boats and in large aggregations, often more than one hundred individual strong. Also Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) gathered in big numbers off the shores of Vila Franca do Campo and Povoacao to socialize and forage. Here you can listen to some Bottlenose dolphin’s vocalizations recorded by our crew during one of the encounters.

Our visitors and crew were incredibly lucky to encounter a pod of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) right in front of our shores. Your can watch an underwater video of this amazing moment filmed by our skipper Tiago here.

In addition we have a couple of close encounters with pods of Striped Dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) and Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). We look forward to welcoming more baleen visitors in our waters now that spring is finally starting!

A sub-adult Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) slowly travels towards the East side of Sao Miguel island. In some weeks it will be reaching the summer feeding grounds, most likely off the coast of Norway.

More recently, we spent some time with a pod of around ten Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus). At least two mother-calf pairs approached Terra Azul boat as several individuals gathered from the depths to socialize.

The pod of Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) recently spotted by Terra Azul.

Finally, we witnessed the return of Cory’s Shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea borealis) from the wintering grounds in the South Atlantic. If you wish to have more information about their life-history, you can find it here in one of our posts.