Juvenile style

Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) fluking before a foraging dive

Olá a todos,

Today our guests and crew were lucky to see two different cetacean species!

A couple of minutes after leaving the marina of Vila Franca do Campo we already came across a pod of Common Dolphins (Delphinus delphis). Actually at first we saw a lot of birds moving. Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis) were following the group of dolphins in order to find fish. The dolphins were hunting, so they were swimming very fast. Next to the hunting group we also saw a nursery group. Some adult dolphins were protecting their offspring and we could clearly see they were avoiding our boat. So we left them alone and we cruised further away.

 

 

Later on we got a call from Filipe, our very experienced lookout. About 7 miles out he expected some whale movement. Arrived there we used our hydrophone to prove Filipe’s expectations were correct. We immediately heard codas. Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) echolocating! The evidence that they were around! Now we only had to play the waiting game. Waiting until a Sperm Whale comes to the surface to take a breath can take a while. Luckily our patience got rewarded, because after some time suddenly a juvenile Sperm Whale appeared. Our boat was lucky, because the whale came quite close. We were able to see the full body, which was probably around 8 meters. The juvenile fluked before his deep dive. Astonishing!