06.07.2022 – Sei no more !!

What better way to start the day, than snorkelling with nice pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins!

We started off with a very successful tour of snorkeling with Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) ! After a day of very little activity on the ocean surface yesterday, it didn’t take us long to find the group of dolphins. A calm sea and curious pod of dolphins made this a truly unforgettable experience for all our guests and the crew!
The special this about being in the water with the dolphins, is not just to see them in their natural habitat and swimming gracefully trough the ocean, but it is also the experience of hearing the dolphins underwater.
Belonging to the family of toothed whales and dolphins, they use so called whistles to socialize with other members of their group, and ,clicks’ to echolocate, find prey and in this chase, to just check us out as unfamiliar objects in their living room.
The sound is produced in an organ called phonic lips that is located just underneath the blowhole by pushing air through a series of air sacs. The melon organ helps to send this noises out into the water through the blowhole and for the dolphin to create an imagine inside their brain of prey abundance and distance.

Our afternoon tours just got more and more exciting! We met our spotties again and even had the chance to hear their vocalizations through a hydrophone, it really sounds like they are trying to tell us something, they are so talkative underwater!

The last round in the evening topped everything again.. We encountered not one, not two, not three… but 4 different species and that right after each other.. Starting with two Sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis), which belong to the suborder of the baleen whales, continued with the reserved and distanced striped  Dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) as well as even more reserved and shy Risso’s Dolphins (Grampus griseus)… and last but not least to add some excitement to the game we caught our Spotties (Stenella frontalis) in a ‘feeding frenzy’ on the way back to the marina feeding along with plenty of Cory’s Shearwaters!

It may continue like this and we’re excited for more adventures like today out there!

By Paulina Kalita

Sightings of the day 

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins

15:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins

14:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins

17:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, Sei whale, Striped dolphins