19.06.2025 – Yay, Striped dolphins!
June 26, 2025
Today our trips allowed us to appreciate the high biodiversity of cetacean species which we have around Madeira. It started on the first trip with a beautiful sighting of a group of Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris). This deep diving animal is rarely seen at the surface of the ocean, as it spends like all of the beaked whales most of its time in the depths of the ocean. On the contrary is the second species we saw, our well known Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). This is the species which comes closest to the shore, as they are no expert divers. Beautiful is always the sighting of their friendship groups, which can stay several years together. The last species of the first trip was the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus). Although this is not a cetaceans species, as it belongs to the seals, it is a special sighting as less than 35 individuals live around Madeira, mostly around the Ilhas Desertas.
The second trip allowed us to appreciate two other species. First we saw the Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus). This strange dolphin species with its dark and white coloration created by the scarring of the animals are rare visitor of the island, where they normally are shy and do not like to approach boats. After this species we saw one of the more common dolphins, the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis). Today one of the younger individuals was very active and showed its agility and speed with several impressive jumps out of the ocean.
On the last trip we saw again the Bottlenose dolphin. The sea conditions changed drastically since the morning, so it was difficult for our spotter Silviano to find something.
By Horst Schulte
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
09:00 Blainville’s beaked whale, Bottlenose dolphin, Mediterranean monk seal
13:00 Risso’s dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin
Stenella
09:30 Blainville’s beaked whale, Bottlenose dolphin
13:30 Risso’s dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin
16:00 Bottlenose dolphin
