01.06.2024 – Always on the run
June 8, 2024
04.05.2024 – An Interesting Invertebrate
June 11, 2024
Madeira attracts many of its visitors with an overload of sunshine. In fact, sunshine doesn’t necessarily mean perfect ocean conditions – today was determined by winds from northeast, resulting in higher waves and plenty of whitecaps on the horizon. This made it difficult to find animals for our spotter on land. Nevertheless, we ventured out on tours the whole day, and got rewarded by many surprises, literally, out of the blue.
Besides some short and adventurous tours further off the shore, we soon realized that our best chances to find wildlife today were closer to land. Our morning tours managed to find a small group of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). The animals were calm and curious this morning, allowing us detailed views onto all the individuals. In the afternoon, a special guest surprised one of our boats – a Blainville beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) surfaced unexpectedly just beside our boat. These small, elusive, and deep diving whales are difficult to observe and study elsewhere in the world. During our trips, we do manage to see them from time to time, still every single encounter being a special one! The individual was an adult male, presenting his impressive teeth and scars while surfacing between the waves. A few closeups taken from this individual will be valuable information for researchers. After a couple of minutes, the animal vanished into the deep and we continued our tour eastwards, where our other boat had in the meantime found two different species, Common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba). The strong winds and waves made it impossible to relocate the animals. Still fulfilled, we continued back to Calheta’s harbour near the beautiful coast. The last tour of the day encountered again a small group of our resident Bottlenose dolphins and a lonesome Common dolphin. Ready to finish the day, a swarm of flying squid (Ommastrephidae) leaped out of the ocean, leaving us stunned and speechless, followed by a hammerhead shark (Sphyrna zygaena) swimming close by the water surface on our way home. Once again, a marvellous and exciting day out on the sea!
by Sarah Kather
Sightings of the day
Click on each sighting to access the photo gallery of the correspondent trip
13:30 Striped dolphins, Short-beaked common dolphins
Stenella
13:30 Blainville’s beaked whale
16:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Short beaked common dolphins
