16.06.2025 – How humans connect animals

The trips today allowed us to see a group of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in their natural environment. This intelligent dolphin species learned to use the human to get food. Normally they feed on fish, squid and crustaceans, but here in the waters of madeira they learned that aquaculture and fisheries can also provide food. The Black scabbard (Aphanopus carbo), a deep sea fish which is caught with longlines is the main target of the dolphins. They learned to attack when the fishermen bring those longlines up to the surface. In nature these animals would never meet, as the Bottlenose dolphin can’t dive so deep to the depths where Black scabbard lives. but we humans with all our activities can connect them.

Apart from the Bottlenose dolphin, we had the luck to see some Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis). Also this is a dolphin species which tends to stay at the surface, but they are not interested in the Black scabbard.

By Horst Schulte

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:00 Atlantic spotted dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin

13:00 Bottlenose dolphin

Stenella

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin

13:30 Bottlenose dolphin

16:00 Bottlenose dolphin