24.03.2026 – Salty serenade
March 30, 2026
Today we came across the most unusual and beautiful gastropod (snails and slugs), the Bubble raft snail (Janthina janthina). With their mucus, they trap air bubbles, creating a raft, which allows them to spend their entire life floating on the surface of the ocean. The snail hangs upside down below the raft. They feed on jellyfish like the Portuguese man o’ war with their toothed tongue called a radula. It can be found in all the tropical and subtropical oceans. They belong to the hermaphroditic species group, which means they have both female and male organs and can change sex — in this case, larger ones are female, and when they are younger and smaller, they are male, but it can also depend on the situation.
Furthermore, we came across a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) basking in the sun and larger pods of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis); they were hunting, milling, and travelling.
By Eva Köhle
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
09:00 Short-beaked common dolphins
13:00 Short-beaked common dolphins, Bubble raft snail, Loggerhead sea turtle
Stenella
09:30 Short-beaked common dolphins
13:30 Short-beaked common dolphins
