07.09.2018 – Magic Moments

There is always this one special moment during a whale and dolphin watching tour. It´s the moment when the animals finally come into sight. There are lots of waves all around us but beneath some of them there are some marine mammals.

Those first few seconds of an encounter are probably the most impressive of the whole tour. Depending on the species of animals and their behavior this is very different. They might be resting on the surface and therefore are clearly visible already from far away. What we see first might be the blow of and animal or the splash after a jump. So, actually not the animals themselves but their “traces”. But sometimes the animals are also approaching us directly. All of the sudden they are right next to the boat and join us for a while – those are the most magical moments on the sea.

It´s especially the Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) showing this behavior. We had the great pleasure to be accompanied by a big pod of more than 30 animals during our excursion in the afternoon. The dolphins were socializing, swimming very close next to each other and showed mating activities. Hopefully, there are a lot more of those great encounters to come towards the end of the summer!

by Jan-Christopher Fischer

Sightings of the day

Stenella

08:30 (Snorkeling) Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

15:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins

Ribeira Brava

17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins