Today we had a dolphin day after few weeks of whales and dolphins sightings. Baleen whales, which have been the protagonists of this month, are likely leaving for once.
Don’t worry the ocean was active enough even with just the dolphins 😀
Jumping and swimming in all directions the Atlantic spotted dolphins were foraging in association with Cory’s shearwaters and with Common dolphins. We found several groups, all of them engaged in the same activity and likely were part of a very large group, just temporarily divided in subgroups for movements coordination.
Breaching juvenile Atlantic spotted dolphin / Stenella frontalis
The shearwaters were also everywhere and particularly busy and focused on their object of interest: fish! They were surveying the sea surface, following the dolphins, diving or just putting their head underwater to check the situation. In all of this frenetic activity the highly demanded fishes were trying to escape hiding under our boat.
Cory’s shearwaters / Calonectris diomedea borealis
Unusual sightings would likely occur when you don’t have a camera with you to witness it… and that is what happened today… In the afternoon tour we met a group of Common dolphins with a very special individual: a young dolphin with leucism!
Leucism is a genetic condition that results in a lack of pigmentation in the skin. This results in animals with white spots or a lighter color than usual, but that have dark, normal colored eyes. Albinos suffer from a similar condition but are completely white and have red eyes. Conveniently we forgot our camera on land and so weren’t able to take photos but the dolphin had the same coloration as a normal Common dolphin, only it was very faded!
The tour ended with a very nice group of Bottlenose dolphins 😀
Keep tuned for more news of our tours!
