10.08.2018 – Whale he blows!

It was a few minutes past seven this evening when we changed our course to the East and back towards the island. We were onboard Stenella, have been far out to the West where the overlapping of the offshore swell with small wind-induced waves resulted in difficult conditions for us to maneuver through the breakers. We found some Cory’s shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) enjoying the wind and waves but we couldn’t find any other marine wildlife.

But then we got the instruction form our spotter: “Keep your eyes open and check the area in the direction of Madalena do Mar!” And there they were. We have seen not only the blowout of one whale, there have been two animals up at the surface. Those were big whales, baleen whales to be precise and with a high probability Tropical whales (Balaenoptera edeni), a mother with her calf.

If such a massive animal exhales, a cloud of water vapor arises up to several meters above the surface. This remains visible for a few seconds before it gets diluted by the wind. The baleen whales have two blowholes right next to each other on the flat top of the head. This is why the blow comes up vertically like a pillar. Such a blow has been the first indication of the presence of those oceanic giants today.

The Tropical whales grow to up to 16 m and can be distinguished from other baleen whales by their tree rostral ridges from the tip of the head to the blowhole. We had a very good view on the two animals, could see them coming up breathing, got a good impression of their enormous sizes and observed the relatively small dorsal fins coming out of the waves for several times. But we could not exactly see those critical ridges. Therefore, the identification was only possible because of a very remarkable gab in one animal’s dorsal fin. We have seen this whale before and know this is a Tropical whale.

It´s very cool to see some individual whales returning and I wish this was not our last encounter for the summer.

by Jan-Christopher Fischer

Sightings of the day

Stenella

08:30 (snorkeling) Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

12:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales, Loggerhead turtle

18:00 Tropical whales

Ribeira Brava

09:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins, Loggerhead turtle

17:00 Tropical whales