21.03.2019 – Souvenir

Our zodiac is back on the water after a brief maintenance on drydock and the Atlantic ocean gave her a fantastic welcome back. Our team managed to provide our guests with sightings of socializing Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) under the guidance of our spotter. The best word to describe the Stenella when it comes to whale-watching is efficient. Not only do her powerful motors enable us to reach the animals in no time, they are also silent enough to enable close encounters with these remarkable creatures. The Stenella isn’t just a very good boat for whale-watching, the boat is also ideal for collecting things from the ocean, like ocean litter or small organisms drifting at the surface.

Today, for instance, we managed to shovel out a small Portuguese Man’O War (Physalis physalis) so our guests could have a closer look at the animals venomous neon-blue tentacles and to check for the presence of Blue dragons (Glaucus atlanticus), a nudibranch that often feeds on these cnidarians. Our captain, Daniel, also managed to remove something else from the ocean during our sighting with the Sperm whales; a piece of Sperm whale skin. As with most toothed whales, body contact is an essential part of a Sperm whales social life and often occurs at the surface as the herd regathers after foraging in the deep. As they socialize, the animals often rub their giant bodies against each other, shedding off pieces of skin in a community „peeling-event“. This is what happened close to our boat today and the crew was able to spot several pieces floating about with one being close enough to the surface for Daniel to snatch.

These pieces of skin aren’t just cool exhibits for our guests on board, Lobosonda also delivers these samples to local scientists on the island. These use the skin to collect both RNA and DNA samples to study the genetic variation and relationships within the population of Sperm whales visiting the island. This research serves as a sturdy backup to the existing Whale-Tales Project; a large compilation of fluke photos used as a photo-identification catalogue to study the population dynamics of the species. Now that’s one valuable souvenir!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Stenella

15:00 Short-beaked common dolphins, Sperm whales