10.08.2021 – How old are you?

Todays tour led us to two groups of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). We were able to accompany the first dolphin school for a while, the second group behaved a little more cautiously.

There was an interesting question on our tour today. How can you determine the age of the marine mammals? If the birth of the animal is not known, a specific age determination can only be made on the deceased animal. In this case, the age can be determined using teeth or ear wax. In every year of life, an annual ring forms in the tooth as well as in the ear wax, similar to a tree trunk. However, researchers can also determine the age by means of a of a biochemical examination of the eye. In the case of a bowhead whale, there was unusual assistance with age determination. A spearhead from 1890 was found in the flesh of this whale.

The electrical system can fail even on such beautiful days. This happend with my computer today after downloading all of the photos for the day. Fortunately, we had a wonderful guest photographer, Russell Dawson, on board. Today’s photos are all from him. Lobosonda and I, thank you very much. Without you we wouldn’t have any photos today. A big thank you.

By Fatima Kutzschbach

Sighting of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Bottlenose dolphins