22.03.2024 – Wild(weather)life Encounters on Madeira Island
March 28, 2024
BWB – From steep to flat
April 4, 2024
The weather did not make things easy for our team and guests this past week. Today’s rough gusts of wind and series of rainshowers prompted our team to cancel this morning’s tours on both boats. In the afternoon the skies suddenly opened up revealing bright sunshine and blue skies. This was our window to manage some sightings at sea.
The wind and swell at sea was still difficult so our team decided to head out only once our spotter confirms a sighting of cetaceans. Both our boats soon sped out of Calheta. While our traditional boat tried to catch up with a small pod of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) heading for the fish farms, our Stenella raced out to sea to investigate some activity our spotter had detected from land.
The activity turned out to be a pod of our speedboat’s namesake dolphins, the Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis). These small summer-loving dolphins are by far the most curious of all cetacean species visiting our archipelago’s waters, making them the perfect company for today’s fairly rough conditions. Our traditional boat also managed to see these lovely dolphins before our fleet left the choppy ocean behind and arrived on land just before the next rain showers swept over Calheta.
By Paula Thake
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins
Stenella
13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins
