13.06.2022 – The word whale

The word whale gets many people extremely confused. For most it refers to the larger baleen whales, for others it can be applied to every large cetacean. In actual fact the word whale encompasses all cetaceans, that is all toothed whales and all baleen whales. So, from the tiny porpoise up to the enormous baleen whales, all are considered whales.

The ocean was a flat silvery-grey surface as we set out to search for these wonderful creatures on our tours this morning. Calheta was a desert, completely void of cetaceans so our spotter tried his luck searching the waters further east for our three free divers on board the Stenella. A group of Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) were briefly surfacing for air before returning into the abyss and our team decided to move on to a small group of juvenile Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) that weren’t too far from the sightings area. The spotted were their usual curious selves and circled the divers as they socialised amongst one another.

The team then had to move further into the waters of Funchal to encounter one of the bigger tropical cetaceans. A Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) was swiftly moving west, apparently in the company of another unidentified baleen whale. The sighting was very brief and we soon were sent back to the same location where our spotter had located the beaked whales to give the encounter another go. Deep divers like beaked whales may often remain fairly stationary in an area if they find an abundance of their prey. This time, our team managed a fairly good sighting of the animals, ticking off three species for the morning tour aboard the Stenella. Unfortunately, the sightings were far out of the search range of our traditional boat which searched far and wide only to return to Calheta without a cetacean sighting.

In the afternoon, however, both boats enjoyed the company of a large, playful pod of spotted dolphins and our Stenella crew even managed to see a few other ocean dwellers including Grey triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), Portuguese Man O’Wars (Physalis physalis), and an Atlantic flying fish (Cheilopogon melanurus). We were also informed of a large Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) cruising along the coastline of Madalena do Mar. Here the word whale is used as a reference to its size and feeding habits; these gentle giants can grow up to 15m in length and feed on tiny plankton in the water column. Despite feeding at the surface, individuals have been documented to dive as deep as 1600m! Despite being a self-proclaimed “shark nerd”, I never thought whale sharks would dive to such depths, incredible! Unfortunately our team didn’t manage a sighting with the magnificent giant but our guests were nonetheless happy with our sightings and simply being in the area of such a fantastic animal!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 No sighting

14:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins

Stenella

09:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Blainville’s beaked whales, Bryde’s whale

15:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins