25.06.2022 – Sometimes dreams do come true!

Published by Paula Thake on June 30, 2022

We had one journalist on board of our Stenella boat today that had one wish – and that was to see beaked whales! Many of you may know that beaked whales are very rarely sighted animals and also that there is very little known about their social structures and their general behaviour. So our team thought – that’s a high stakes poker game there..
Leaving the marina, we had little expectations. Both our boats were cruising towards the east and after almost an hour and no sightings, we slowly lost hope of any sighting. As it usually is, after almost giving up – there was hope in sight! Our spotter Carlos gave us a call saying that he might have spotted something close to our Ribeira Brava boat. After a little while of waiting and looking there they were, two Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris), a species that it known for it’s special looking beak with two jaws overreaching their rostrum. In mature males there is a tooth erupting each side of the lower jaw.
Shy as they are, they still made a nice appearance and left all if us impressed! But that wasn’t the end of the excitment.. our guests were treated with a 3 in 1 sighting special that followed with a big pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) including a new born calf and a solitary bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops trucatus). It is not very usual for bottlenose dolphins to travel on their own and we are assuming that this individual was hurt and confused as it seemed disorientated and unlike the bottlenose behavior. I guess we all get old and weak at some point and we found it at a bad time and in a bad shape.
To put this trip in a nutshell – the ocean is full of surprises and sometimes it’s worth dreaming big, our journalist had his lucky day today 🙂

By Paulina Kalita

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Blainville’s beaked whales, Bottlenose dolphin

14:30 No sighting

Stenella

10:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Blainville’s beaked whales

15:00 Bottlenose dolphin