30.09.2023 – Stumbled upon

Our crew enjoyed flat seas for our tours this morning, which made life especially easy for our spotter Sílviano. After scanning the ocean for some time, his eyes soon fell on a pod of Rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis). The seas around Madeira at this time of the year are the perfect temperature for these warm-water loving cetaceans. Little is known about the social lives of these dolphins and local scientists are still deciphering the species relationship to Madeira as a habitat. After our encounter with these deepwater dolphins we met a more known dolphin, actually the best known of them all. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are by far the species we know the most about, so much so that we often base our knowledge on all species of dolphins on what we know about the Bottlenose.

The ocean seemed like a desert for our team during the afternoon tours. Our spotter searched far and wide but no cetaceans were to be seen. During the midday tour, our team aboard the Stenella suddenly stumbled upon something white at the surface that looked like debris and ended up waking a resting Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris)! A marvellous surprise for our team! In the evening tour our captain drove the boat far west and stumbled upon a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), a curious and small species of dolphin, a perfect end to such a challenging day!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Bottlenose dolphin, Rough-toothed dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphin, Rough-toothed dolphins

14:00 Cuvier’s beaked whales

17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphin