20.08.2024 – Grampus

In Cetology there are plenty of old-timey words. But if there’s one word that makes me feel the most like an ancient mariner, it’s the one I used at 14:00 today: grampus. This old phrase used to be used occasionally for Orca (Orcinus orca), but as time progressed, it was used exclusively for one species, Rissos dolphins (Grampus griseus). Grampus comes via old French from Latin meaning “fat fish.” . Its antiquated feeling to me has a lot to do with its use in Moby Dick. Moby Dick is a book that fascinates me. The first time I read it, I found many parallels between my own life and that of Ishmael, and as much as whale hunting is abhorent, there is something powerful about literature that connects you to lives lived over 150 years ago. Moby Dick is (for the time) very accurate in its cetology; the Grampus, for example, is described as “moving in herds,” not “often hunted,” but when they are “containing good oil.” All of this is true and accurate to the modern day, where sadly in Indonesia, Japan, the Lesser Antilles, Sri Lanka, and the Solomon Islands, Rissos are in fact hunted for their meat and oil. Hopefully, in time, this hunting will become as antiquated as the term grampus, or indeed, Moby Dick,but in the mean time, watch this space for more “special leviathanic revelations.”.

By Peter Worth

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins

14:00 Bottlenose Dolphins

Stenella
09:30 Bottlenose Dolphins

14:00 Rissos Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins

17:00 Bottlenose Dolphins