20.02.2024 – Three on a Tuesday

In Portuguese Tuesday is called “Terça-feira”, synonymous to the third day…a very suitable name considering today’s tours out on the ocean. On both tours our team managed sightings of three species with both trips beginning with a pod of Botlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). While the species does tend to prefer coastal waters, a trait visible in the pod we met near Calheta fish farm in the afternoon, the animals were travelling rather far offshore in the afternoon. In fact, they weren’t far off from a pod of Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), a deep-diving dolphin species that prefers deeper waters and frequently dives into the dark ocean to pursue deep-sea squid. While in the morning we saw both species travelling together, they were quite far apart in the afternoon with the Bottlenose socialising near the coastline and the pilots logging at the surface between their deep dives.

Today’s highlight however was the third species, which happens to be the second largest animal known to man on our planet. Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) were travelling in a small group formation of 3-4 animals far off the coast of Paul do Mar this morning and our team made sure to secure a sighting with them. It wasn’t easy to spot the species characteristic feature, their asymmetric head coloration, during the sighting but we managed to confirm this towards the end of the sighting. During the afternoon, our skipper Daniel managed an underwater video where we caught a glimpse of their famous “white flash” head coloration, allowing an almost immediate identification. 

Needless to say, all our guests were beyond satisfied today and who can blame them? this definitely wasn’t bad for a Tuesday!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Fin whales, Short-finned pilot whales

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Fin whale, Short-finned pilot whales