14.02.202 – Valentine’s surprise!

We embarked in our tour of day in the azure waters of Madeira with a lot enthusiasm and hoping for the biggest surprises (as always), but we had no idea what mother nature had waiting for us.

First, we spotted the resident pod of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from Madeira. The friendly pod (between each other) greeted us and swam along our side as they were heading to their favourite feeding spot: the fishfarms. We were all amazed as they bowrid us and even breached a couple of times in front of us. Their sleek forms and pink bellies will forever stay as a great memory that will last a lifetime.

As we said goodbye to them we received an exciting call from our spotter: “In front of Ponta do sol I can see a whale, might be a humpback”. We immediately rushed towards the alleged sighting site and waited. The whole crew started to look around hoping maybe it will appeared. We even put the hydrophone in the water to try and listen to it. Did you know that humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have one of the most cryptic and complex language in the world? Each year they have a new song that they will repeat and change for the next season, and although all whales communicate only males in this species are the ones who sing! 

Unfortunately we couldn’t hear any songs but suddenly we spotted the hump! Just in front of us a big blow for a juvenile whale! We were able to see the whole body as the ocean conditions allowed it and it even delighted us with its fluke tail as she swam deeper to big blue. This, allowed us to identify it by photo ID, a well used technique for identification in whales. Guess what! This is the first time we have seen this specimen in Madeira, making it a new one for the catalogue.

We were all in awe, humpback whales are a rare sighting in Madeira, but is around this time of the year when we are most likely to see them! This stays as a reminder of how diverse our blue planet really is. And in this Valentine’s day let’s celebrate the love for the wildlife, the ocean and its inhabitants, let’s keep working together to protect this species, here and around the world!

By Camila Dávila

Sightings of the day

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Humpback whale