17.05.2025 – Do whales and dolphins like bad weather?

I don’t know if it is true, butI get the feeling that whales and dolphins like bad weather, because since I started to work here with Lobosonda we had the most diverse and spectacular sightings if the weather is bad. Today it happened again. We went out with both boats and pretty fast we were greeted by two groups of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis). These playful animals joined our boats for a while swimming with us through the Atlantic Ocean. It would have been beautiful, if the weather would have stayed good, but rain clouds approached and it got a tiny bit wet. But with the rain more sightings came. First some Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesolpodon densirostris) were curious and approached our zodiac Stenella and later we saw the beautiful coloured Short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) which jumped around the boat. The last trip added some Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) and Pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) to the sightings list.

I still don’t have an answer for mu question, but at least some amazing sightings.

By Horst Schulte

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Blainville’s beaked whales, Short-beaked common dolphin

Stenella

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Blainville’s beaked whales, Short-beaked common dolphin

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Striped Dolphin, Short-beaked common dolphin, Short-finned pilot whale