09.09.2026 – Hydrodynamic happiness
September 17, 2026
Our morning started with a really interesting observation of rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) from both boats. They were hunting dolphinfish which is their preferred prey, swimming very fast at the surface, making some sharks impressions. They were jumping as well and we didn’t know where to look ! On some photos, we can really See their pink belly. They approached the boat but they were mostly focus on their task. The teeth of the rough-toothed dolphin have fine vertical ridges which help them grip and tear apart slippery or large prey. One poor loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) found herself in the middle of this !
We had nice encounters the rest of the day with bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus). We also see that these past few days we have less spotted dolphins during our tour. They might be heading towards warmer waters as we are soon heading towards autumn !
By Juliette Colançon
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
09:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Loggerhead turtle, Rough-toothed dolphins
13:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Loggerhead turtle
Steno
09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Rough-toothed dolphins
13:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins
16:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins
