24 may/maio 2010

1:45pm trip

Today we had to start our whale watching trip a bit earlier because we had some tourists from the cruise ship that needed to be back early to the ship. The vigia Antero, in São Mateus (south of Pico) had seen some baleen whales in that area in the morning so we made our way there to try and spot some whales. Martins, another vigia, was spotting dolphins a couple of miles of Monte da Guia so we decided to head there first. It was 2pm when we spotted a big group (~100 individuals) of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). We identified them by their counter-shading grey coloration. The dorsal part of the body is darker grey whilst the ventral part is lighter grey. Some even had a pinkish belly. The bottlenose dolphin is famous worldwide for its appearance in the tv show and movie "Flipper". Some of the dolpins were bowriding, others were jumping around, keeping up with our boat. We could hear them whistling from the bow of the boat. Because they live in the water, their primary sense is acoustic. So, they use whistles to communicate with each other.

Around 3pm we were hit by heavy rain that lasted 30 minutes, making it impossible to spot any other species. Even the vigias could not see our boat or any animals because of the rain. We decided to leave the area and the dolphins behind and headed towards Morro de Castelo Branco to see some birds. We saw shearwaters, gulls and terns flying around the cliffs. On our way back we also visited the caves of Feteira area and the beach of Porto Pim.

13:45

Hoje tivemos de começar a nossa viagem de observação de baleias e golfinhos mais cedo pois tínhamos a bordo alguns passageiros do cruzeiro que tinham de regressar ao navio um pouco mais cedo. Em São Mateus, no sul do Pico, o vigia Antero tinha visto algumas baleias de barbas de manhã por isso decidimos dirigir-nos a essa zona para tentar avistá-las. O Martins, um outro vigia que trabalha à volta do Faial, avistou golfinhos a cerca de duas milhas fora do Monte da Guia, pelo que decidimos dirigir-nos para aí primeiro. Eram duas da tarde quando avistámos um grupo grande (~100 indivíduos) de golfinhos roazes (Tursiops truncatus). É possível identificá-los pela sua coloração cinzenta. São cinzento escuros no dorso e cinzento claro no ventre. Alguns até tinham o ventre rosado, o que não é incomum nesta espécie. Os roazes são famosos no mundo inteiro pelo seu aparecimento na série televisiva e filme "Flipper". Alguns dos golfinhos vieram à proa, outros saltavam a toda a volta, acompanhando o barco. Foi possível ouvir os assobios dos golfinhos desde a proa do barco. Porque estes animais vivem em água, o seu sentido mais apurado é o sentido acústico. Por isso, eles usam assobios para comunicar uns com os outros.

Começou a chover fortemente por volta das três da tarde e durou meia hora, tornando impossível o avistamento de qualquer outra espécie. Nem os vigias conseguiam ver o nosso barco ou outros animais por causa da chuva. Decidimos sair daquela área e deixar os animais e rumamos até ao Morro de Castelo Branco para ver algumas aves. Vimos cagarros, gaivotas e garajaus a voar nas falésias. Na volta para a marina vimos ainda as grutas na zona da Feteira e a praia de Porto Pim.

Susana Simião

(roaz - bottlenose dolphin)

(roaz - bottlenose dolphin)

(Morro de Castelo Branco)

23 may/maio 2010

2:30pm

The weather was wonderful, when we left Horta's harbour in the afternoon for a whale watching trip. We headed towards the north of Faial, where the vigia Vargas, who is based in Cedros, was spotting sperm whales. The visibility was so good that we could see not only Faial and Pico, but two other islands of the central group of the archipelago, São Jorge and Graciosa.

Half an hour after leaving, we spotted our first sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) 5 or 6 miles off Cedros. It appeared to be about 6-7 meters in lenght, so it was a juvenile sperm whale. It shallow dove, not showing its fluke as it went down, and when it came back up after a few minutes it was accompanied by another sperm whale. Both of them stayed at the surface for about 5 minutes, until one of them fluked (showed its tail). In the meantime we were already spotting a few other blows in a few mile-radius of our boat. After some shallow dives, 6 individuals got together. One of them was really small so it was still a calf. The others were either females or juvenile males. They stayed at the surface for 10-15 minutes, all heading towards the same direction. Occasionally they would shallow dive, or side-fluke, only to reappear a few dozen meters ahead. This is typical socializing behaviour for the sperm whales. In total, at one point, we counted 12 individual sperm whales, although they were a bit spread out. The biggest aggregation was the one with the 6 individuals, but its quite possible that all of them were socializing because they can communicate with each other at those distances.

We stayed in that area, moving from one "group" of animals to another until 5pm, when it was time to head back. On our way back, we were informed by Martins, another vigia that works all around Faial's, that there was a big group of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) a few miles northeast of Ribeirinha. The dolphins were active, occasionally leaping and bowriding. It was possible to hear their whistles, above water, from the bow of the boat, which was really cool. It was quite a big group, likely around 100 dolphins. It was the perfect ending for our trip. We also saw a lot of shearwaters paddling after our dolphin encounter. We made our way back travelling really close to shore at Praia do Almoxarife for a close view at the beach and the little village.

14:30

O tempo estava maravilhoso quando, à tarde, saímos da marina da Horta para uma viagem de observação de baleias e golfinhos. O nosso rumo era o norte do Faial, pois o vigia Vargas, com base em Cedros, estava a avistar cachalotes. A visibilidade era óptima, e além de vermos claramente as ilhas do Faial e Pico, viam-se ainda duas outras ilhas do grupo central do arquipélago, São Jorge e Graciosa.

Cerca de meia hora após termos saído, avistámos o primeiro cachalote (Physeter macrocephalus) a cerca de 5 ou 6 milhas ao largo de Cedros. Aparentava ter cerca de 6-7metros de comprimento, pelo que se tratava de um cachalote juvenil. O cachalote fez um mergulho superficial, pois não mostrou a barbatana caudal, e quando voltou à superfície passados alguns minutos, estava acompanhado por outro cachalote. Ambos ficaram a superfície cerca de 5 minutos, até que um deles mergulhou em profundidade (mostrando a caudal). Entretanto, já estávamos a avistar uns quantos sopros num raio de algumas milhas do nosso barco. Depois de alguns mergulhos superficiais, 6 indivíduos juntaram-se. Um deles era ainda muito pequeno, tratando-se por isso de uma cria. Os outros eram fêmeas, ou machos juvenis. Ficaram à superfície cerca de 10-15 minutos, todos paralelos uns aos outros e a apontar na mesma direcção. Ocasionalmente, mergulhavam superficialmente, ou lateralmente, apenas para reaparecer algumas dezenas de metros à frente. Este comportamento é típico comportamento de socialização nos cachalotes. No total, a uma dada altura, contámos 12 indivíduos, embora estivessem um pouco dispersos. A maior agregação foi a dos 6 indivíduos, mas é possível que todos estivessem a socializar, pois podem comunicar uns com os outros àquela distância.

Ficámos naquela área, alternando entre "grupos" de cachalotes até às 17h, quando chegou a altura de regressar. Fomos informados pelo Martins, outro vigia que trabalha no Faial, de que havia um grande grupo de golfinhos-roaz (Tursiops truncatus), algumas milhas a nordeste da Ribeirinha. Os golfinhos estavam muito activos, a saltar e a virem à proa do barco. Da proa, e acima do nível da água, era possível escutar os assobios dos golfinhos. Era um grupo bastante grande, provavelmente à volta de 100 golfinhos. Foi o final perfeito para o fim da nossa viagem. Depois do nosso encontro com os golfinhos, vimos ainda muitos cagarros a descansar à superfície. Regressámos à Horta passando muito perto da costa na Praia do Almoxarife para ver de perto a praia e a pequena vila.

Susana Simião

(cachalotes - sperm whales)



(cachalotes a socializar - sperm whales socializing)


(cagarro - shearwater)


(roaz - bottlenose dolphin)


(roaz - bottlenose dolphin)

21 May 2010

9am trip

The day started of good, at 9am, has we were leaving Horta's marina where our vessel "José Azevedo" stays for the night. The sea was calm, and we had been informed that there were baleen whales and sperm whales in the south coast of Pico, by one of the vigias, Antero that stays in São Mateus (south of Pico, the island in front of Faial's capital city - Horta). We were in the channel when we were visited by a small group (~20) of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). We recognised them by their robust bodies, their counter-shading grey coloration and their round, "bottlenose"-type beaks. They showed interest in our boat and bowride for a few minutes before moving along.


(bottlenose dolphins)

Not too long after that, we spoted our first sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), the symbol of the Azores Archipelago. It fluked shortly after we saw it so only a few lucky tourists got to see it. We then had to wait around 45 minutes (the usual dive time for females and juvenile males) for it to come back up again. This is typical foraging behaviour for the sperm whales, staying underwater for ~3/4 of an hour and the rest catching their breath at the surface, blowing a few times before fluking again, going down for deep foraging dives. We saw its blow again, which is quite distinctive because unlike other cetaceans, the sperm whales have their blowhole in front of their heads, instead of on top, so when water passes through the surface of their blowhole and they exhale, the water is released forward and making 45º with the surface of the water. We were still able to see it at the surface for about 4 minutes before it arched it's back and went down for another deep dive, showing off its fluke. Immediately after we saw another blow, followed shortly by another fluke. The trailing edge of the flukes is distinct for each individual, similarly to human fingerprints, which makes us able to distinguish each individual apart. All the sperm whales we saw were either females or juvenile males because they were all, as it seemed, under 13m.



(sperm whale fluking)

While we were waiting at the surface to spot another blow, we noticed a lot of portuguese-man-of-war (Physalia physalis) floating along, all over the place. Although they resemble jellyfish, these venomous marine invertebrates are actually siphonophores, a colony of individuals which are specialized polyps and medusoids.

(portuguese man-of-war)

We saw another sperm whale fluking before heading closer to Faial again, a few miles south of Monte da Guia, where Antero was spotting humpback whales. It took us a while but we eventually spot a humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae). The humpbacks are baleen whales, and this means that, obviously they have baleen, but also that they have a double blowhole instead of one. So, their blow is upward-orientated and bushy. The whale did not show its fluke, appearing the surface every 1-3 minutes, staying up only a few seconds (less than 30sec), which is typical travelling behaviour.

(humpback whale)

Around 12pm we headed back, leaving some passengers in Madalena (Pico), as previously arranged, before heading back to Horta. Despite some rain we got towards the end overall it was a nice trip, with 3 different cetacean's species sighted.


2.30pm trip

After lunch, at 2.30pm, we had another whale watching trip. Because we had had such a successful morning, we decided to head back to the same area where we had seen the whales. It was shortly after 3pm when we spotted the first sperm whale, one of the same individuals we had seen in the morning. The sea was getting rougher, so although we saw another sperm whale, we didn't get close enough to clearly see its fluke. The sea was calmer closer to the south of Faial, so we headed there hoping to see some more species. We were then visited by a nice group of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis). We can identify these species by their hour-glass coulour pattern on their flanks. The front part has a yellow colour, while the rear is light grey. Their dorsal fins may also have a lighter mark. At first they didn't pay much attention to the boat, as we were not going fast, slowly heading closer inland. But after a while they came back, more enthusiatic, bowriding and jumping around the boat. This time they were also accompanied by about 40-60 Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea borealis), just milling around. These birds are one of the most commonly seen species in the Azores, during summer.


(sperm whale fluking)


(common dolphins)

During the afternoon it was also possible to see portuguese-man-of-war everywhere. The sun was shinning, but the waves were increasing so we started making our way back to Horta, coming close to shore to see the nesting colonies of shearwaters and gulls in the Reserva Natural de Castelo Branco, and seeing some of the cave formations along the coast.

Susana Simião

whale watching

Yesterday was the first whale watching trip with the new biologist and crew member on board, Susana Simião (me). The purpose of this blog is to inform the general public of the sightings we've been having on our whale watching tours on a day-to-day basis. I'll try to write a small summary of events and I will also upload some of the pictures I took on each trip.

Susana Simião