11.12.2023 – Bottlenose dolphins and their fishing farms adventures
December 17, 2023
15.12.2023 – Madeira’s Captivating Bottlenose Dolphins
December 22, 2023
Not everything went as planned during our afternoon tour at sea. A slight drizzle postponed our tour by about 20 minutes but as we drove out, the sharp eyes of our spotter soon discovered a handful of Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) heading briskly for Funchal. Our captain Pedro immediately accelerated to catch up with the animals but soon our spotter called to advise us to abandon the pursuit; the whales were moving too fast.
After trying our luck with yet another Sperm whale further west, we decided to try our luck with a pod of Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus). The pod was very dispersed and kept moving offshore into the glare of the sun, which had finally come out for us during the sighting. Pilot whales prefer placing themselves against the light or at least this is something that our crew has observed over the years. Whether this has to do with better vision or due to the fact that they prefer not being “cornered” towards the coastline, who knows…
After a few close encounters with some of the larger, curious females we drove back to Calheta and, this time, couldn’t avoid the rain along the coastline. Our guests were overjoyed at the trip nonetheless leaving our team equally happy and accomplished.
By Paula Thake
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
13:30 Short-finned pilot whales
