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