10.07.2024 – Precious moments
July 17, 2024
12.07.2024 – Spotted dolphin time
July 19, 2024
Our today’s voyages were dominated by some of our most commonly sighted species, the Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Both species being majestic and playful, we couldn’t have asked for more. Indeed, our morning tours were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of another rare visitor, a large Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni).
Bryde’s whales are baleen whales, reaching up to an incredible 15 m (50 feet) in length. Still, I wonder how many of you had heard of them before – quite weird, isn’t it? Well there is a reason for that – Bryde’s whales like to play hide and seek. They don’t show much of their body mass when surfacing, take a few breaths and even though they aren’t deep divers, they may stay for 10 to 15 minutes under water, appearing in random places when blowing again. We may not forget that our whales’ home is the ocean, their only real need to come to the surface is to breathe. This makes the moments we are able to watch them even more precious. Still, Bryde’s whales elusive behaviour makes them very difficult to study. During our morning trips, our passengers needed quite some patience until being able to get a good look onto this marvellous giant. The patience paid off and we all appreciated the moments with this large whale. Fortunately, it was enough to get a few pictures of him, hopefully helping to study and understand this species a little more in the future.
by Sarah Kather
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bryde’s whale
13:30 Bottlenose dolphins
17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins
Stenella
09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bryde’s whale
14:00 Bottlenose dolphins
17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins
