08.08.2024 – Residents

Three different species of dolphins were encountered on our today’s exciting tours to the sea. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba). Even though we manage to observe all of these three beautiful species throughout the year, only one of them is scientifically confirmed to be a “resident” species. Why is that? If you already went to some of our tours and had the luck to see them in the wild, you might have gotten an idea.

As a resident we consider animals, often only a part of the population, which return to a certain area repeatedly over the seasons and years. That doesn’t mean that we see the individual dolphin every single day of the year. He might travel for dozens or hundreds of miles and only return weeks or months later. But, eventually, it shows certain fidelity to our waters. There are indeed certain individuals, which we are already able to recognize with bare eyes at sea. These are often very old animals which are marked by plenty of scars on their bodies. This is one of the reasons why we take pictures during our trips. We try to photograph the dolphins’ acrobatic jumps and adorable faces just for fun (and as memories for us and our guests). We focus on photographing the dolphins side portrait including their dorsal fins to identify each individual dolphin. And this is why we know nowadays that some Bottlenose dolphins are resident in our waters. They usually swim slowly in small groups besides us, allowing us to take an ID-photograph of every single animal. Now try to take a picture of hyperactive Striped dolphins dashing with incredible speed through the water. And although Spotted dolphins often jump towards our boats, the sheer number of dolphins and constant hectic movements make it almost impossible to photograph all of them. On top of that, Spotted dolphins will change their pattern over the years, gathering more and more spots on their skin. How to recognize them then? So we still don’t know for certain if Striped or Spotted dolphins are residents in our waters, but they certainly find enough food around the island – Lucky us to see them so often!

By Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, Striped dolphins

14:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Striped dolphins

17:00 Bottlenose dolphins