Flipper Time

Hola nature freaks,

The Azores surely are not a destination where you can get bored. Sao Miguel has so many beautiful things to offer on land and at sea. This Island has such a huge diversity of fauna and flora. Each day is a surprise and there is always something new and amazing to discover. Moreover, the weather keeps constantly changing keeping us always challenged about how the next trip is going to look like.

Today it was back to summer times with a little windy breeze but a lot of sunshine.

We started our “sea safari” by meeting a very big pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis) always there to put a funny smile on our faces.

Atalantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis) swimming and playing around

Then we got a radio call from our vigia that spotted some Sei Whales (Balaenoptera borealis) shallow diving at the very East of the Island. But pssscht, it is a surprise, our guests on board have no clue yet that we are going to meet these wonderful creatures.

Blow of a Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis)

We also met a pod of around 30 individuals of Common Dolphins (Delphinus delphis) just socializing around and making our trip even more lovely.

Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) showing the recognizable white patch on its dorsal fin

Ohh and then my highlight of the day : “Flipper”. So, as you might already know, one of our resident species is the Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) more commonly known from the famous movie Flipper. In the Azores, we have the oceanic kind of Bottlenose Dolphins, which are bigger, more muscular and darker in skin than the coastal ones. And when I say bigger, I really mean BIGGER. The adult males can reach up to 4 meters and weight 650 kilograms. And it’s exactly this show-off off strength that we saw today when a few individuals just started to make some jumps and backflips near our boat. What an amazing display of power.