12.06.2024 – Timing is everything

Let’s imagine a “Behind-the-scenes” of a whale-watching trip at Lobosonda. Hopefully for our guest’s, every tour feels smooth and easy going, but there is quite some organization involved in each of our trips. Obviously, there is booking and administration on land required, maintenance of our boats and equipment. But even during the trip, there is need of constant communication and coordination between the skippers of our two boats (eventually even with other companies), with the spotter who is observing the ocean from land, and in the meantime on board between the skipper, the guide and the guests. Even with all this expertise, patient observation and coordination, every adventure into the sea also requires a lot of luck and certainly good timing. Being at the right place at the right time.

Just like that, our three trips today couldn’t have been any more different from each other. During the morning, we were lucky to have mirrorlike sea conditions, which made it much easier to find animals and even to observe them even whilst they are swimming under water. We easily found an abundance of wildlife, dolphin-groups of different species and in varying group-size: the resident Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), the ever-entertaining Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and the rapid Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba). Latter, swimming at the bow our boat, left both our guide and skipper speechless. With any other dolphin species but the Striped dolphins, this kind of curiosity is something we always hope to encounter, as it gives us the chance to observe these beautiful animals from a very close angle. Striped dolphins normally behave the opposite and dash away from us, just enough to marvel quickly and eventually to register a few photographs from far away.

Just a moment later, during our afternoon trip, the ocean seemed deserted. With all effort of our spotter, coordination with other companies and obviously constant observation directly off the boats, we couldn’t find any whales or dolphins. Covering many nautical miles along and offshore, we certainly found other wildlife, as a small Loggerhead Sea turtle (Caretta caretta), Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis), Portuguese man’o war (Physalia physalis) and even flying squid (Ommastrephidae), while mesmerizing the picturesque landscape of the Madeiran coastline. The last afternoon trip was luckier, once again being at the right place at the right time. After a few meters off the harbour, a lonesome Bottlenose dolphin surprised us. After observing many seabirds, we turned and raced offshore in search of a group of dolphins our spotter head found, again having flying squid leaping out of our way. Once arrived, wind and waves made it impossible to find the anticipated dolphins. Instead, on our way back to Calheta, we came across another group of Atlantic spotted dolphins. Timing is everything!

By Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins

Stenella

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

16:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins