19.08.2019 – Hang loose

When you think of surfers, you think of a bunch of longhaired dudes on a beach, patiently waiting for waves to come their way, finding their balance as they carve through the water. But there’s a much more skilled surfer out there, one whose natural instincts always let it catch the waves. The Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) will come to our boat whenever it can, directly making its way to our bow, and as we push the water forward, it effortlessly glides along on the bow-wave we create under water. This friendly surf-bro of the great blue has had its talent handed down for many generations, for as long as there have been large whales in the water (about 3 million years) dolphins have been surfing. Because a massive multiple ton whale does the exact same thing as our boats do: they push a lot of water, very fast and create waves when they do.

Now dolphins are intelligent social animals, who may just catch a wave for fun when they can, however this behaviour is not solely recreational. In the animal kingdom, everything is about energy, the more you eat, the more energy you have available, the more you spend, the less reserves you will have. So, when the dolphins learned that they can just hitch a ride with whales and boats, they found that it saves them allot of energy. And the energy saved can be spent on other things, like growing bigger, catching fish, or impressing a potential mate. Silly as they may seem sometimes, everything in nature happens for a reason, al behaviours learned from the group or handed down genetically. Even playing, it keeps the muscles strong, trains a dolphin for the hunt and establishes the social standing in the group.

The other dolphin we saw today, the Striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) is not so fond of boats, surely, they may surf a wave here and there, but not the ones we make, still they make for a graceful show as the jump to show us their incredible patterns.

Its was a wonderful day to be a guest out on the water, so as always, we keep our eyes on the horizon, to see what we can find next.

By Scott Dorssers

Sightings of the day

Stenella

12:00 Striped dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin

15:30 Atlantic spotted dolphin

18:00 Atlantic spotted dolphin

Ribeira brava

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphin

17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphin