10.06.2014 – The common, the largest, the rarest

Today, we have been able to tick a couple of boxes off the Wishlist’s of many our passengers and certainly also our guides and captains.

The most eventful was certainly our morning trip on Ribeira Brava. After a few moments after leaving the harbour, we got surprised by one of the rarest animals we could possibly encounter, just popping up just besides our boat: A Mediterranean Monk seal (Monachus monachus) curiously lifted its head, allowing us all a brief look at him. Believe it or not, but scientists estimate only 35 individuals around Madeira, being a subpopulation of not more than 600 animals left of this species. With these numbers, we were looking at the most endangered seal species on our planet!

As quick as he appeared, he also disappeared again, so we headed out in search for some Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) which our patient spotter on land had found. But yet again, we got surprised by somehting else on our way, the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis). Certainly, both species are quite common to find but probably also amongst the most entertaining ones to observe in our waters. After spending a little time with the playful Spotted dolphins, we still managed to find the initial group of Bottlenose dolphins, which looked massive compared to the first species. Speaking of massive…after these two wonderful sightings, we made our way back to the harbour, just being interrupted by a notice of a larger baleen whale in the area. Sure, we would give it a try, but large whales often travel fast and stay under water for longer periods of time between breaths, not often making them easy to observe. The immense blow that we first spotted was the first sign – this is certainly a very, very large whale – could it be? It was, indeed, the largest animal ever inhabiting our planet, a Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), surfacing a few times beside our boat between the waves.

Blue whales are considered endangered, as they have been heavily hunted in the past. Nowhere in the world being found in large numbers, they are observed only a few times per year in the waters around Madeira, but at this time of the year, in June? Almost impossible. What was he doing here? Blue whales have a beautiful, mottled pattern of light and darker grey tones on their bodies, also a very small dorsal fin, both being unique to each individual. We managed to get some important images to send to scientific projects, hopefully helping to shed light onto this individual and the whole species.

Our guests of our morning trip might agree that it was an extremely exciting but not easy sighting. Due to their size, blue whales are obviously not as playful and acrobatic as many of our dolphin species, also are not easy to approach. After a few minutes we decided to finish our trip and return to the home harbour.

Such encounters are certainly rare and usually brief, hopefully leaving us behind full of gratitude and the wish of conserving these beautiful animals. As quickly as they appeared, they had also disappeared into the vast blue. Our afternoon tours still managed to head out and encounter plenty of wildlife, amongst them Atlantic spotted dolphins, a Short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), a Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis) and Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis). What a marvellous day!

By Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Click on each sighting to access the photo gallery of the correspondent trip

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, Blue whale, Mediterranean Monk seal

13:30 Short-beaked common dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphins

Stenella

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Loggerhead sea turtle