15.05.2026 – Together

Today’s tours took place on a rather choppy ocean but were nonetheless filled with wonderful sightings of four different species scattered throughout the day. The sightings during the morning were especially dynamic; with dolphins feeding together with two large baleen whales nearby.

We have been seeing quite a few of these “associative feeding” situations and, while predators actually compete with each other for food during such gatherings, it actually carries advantages for all predators involved. In today’s case, Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were gathering the prey at the surface making it accessible for the marine birds circling above. We had Cory’s shearwaters (Calonectris borealis), Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) and some Common terns (Sterna hirundo). Apart from gathering the prey for the birds, they also help group the fish for lunge feeding baleen whales. The favour goes two ways though; the Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) looming around the area helped assist the dolphins in corralling the fish.

The hunting continued into the afternoon with a few socialising situations amongst the Bottlenose and the sightings were accompanied by encounters with the small Stenella species; Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba).

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Bryde’s whale, Striped dolphins

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

Steno

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Bryde’s whale, Striped dolphins

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

16:30 Bottlenose dolphins