25.10.2022 – Using the gaps

At the moment, the weather is playing cat and mouse with us. The weather forecasts are sometimes correct, sometimes not. So we use the gaps to go out with our guests. Although the sea wasn’t particularly calm today, the sightings turned out to be beautiful.

Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) made a brisk journey through our Blue Office. At noon, even together with a school of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) showed their best side. It was a large group with many offspring. Somehow I had the feeling that they would soon be on their way to their winter home. We consider this interactive species of dolphin to be a species that we can only enjoy seasonally, as they prefer warmer water temperatures. They usually arrive off Madeira’s coast in May and, depending on the weather conditions, leave our waters in Autumn/Winter. Possibly they overwinter the Canaries. There, volcanism has also created steep coastal drops. There, too, there is an up welling of nutrients when the sea masses hit the coastline, which is very beneficial for the food chain.

By Fatima Kutzschbach

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Pilot whales, Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Pilot whales, Atlantic spotted dolphins

12:00 Pilot whales, Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins