Beware: This post is not a drill

Writing this post will be a challenge, so much happened today. It was a crazy Friday!!

So there is no other way than to narrate as accurate as I can the events of today.

We navigated to the very tip of the Northern part of the island, and on the way we found a pod of Blainville’s Beaked Whales (Mesoplodon densirostris), 4 individuals travelling, very calmly and staying at the surface for a long time.

This rare event does not occur very often, since this group of cetaceans known as beaked whales are noise sensitive and not very curious towards boats.

But today… I guess every rule has its exception. The calm beaked whales got close to the boat while travelling and we were able to photograph one of them.

We continued navigating quite far out yet all was worth it. We found 15 Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) socializing by rubbing themselves against each other (normal behaviour found in Sperm whales) as well as turning their entire bodies, showing their flukes while turning and swimming vertically as well. The result was spyhopping and here is a little glimpse of what that is :

Here a group of seven Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) is found socializing.

We decided to leave these social mammals alone and continued in order to find a mother and baby Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis), the encounter lasted briefly but here is a good pic of what we sighted. We wish them very safe travels 😉

A Sei Whale arching its body-diving behaviour

While heading back to our base, we encountered a few miles out a big group of Atlantic Spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), wowwww !!!! Guys…They were feeding in the same area as the Cory’s shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) and when the feeding frenzy stopped, the animals started travelling again but check it out, all together.