04.07.2024 – Inquisitiveness

After working for years and years on the ocean, the encounters at sea are obviously not the same as when you see cetaceans for the very first time. Don’t get me wrong, the ocean indeed surprises our team every single day, and all of us still get very excited when we are out there, sometimes perhaps even more than our guests. But after months of heading out up to three times per day, there is a certain routine to every trip. On routine tours, it can be small details that make our days special – for example, managing to photograph a flying fish (Cheilopogon melanurus), very calm seas allowing us to sea the animals in so much detail, our charming Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis) dashing into the ocean and fight for their bite of fish. Sometimes it can be a group of the very same dolphin species that you encounter almost every day, but with a tiny newborn amongst them. The latter actually occurred in some of today’s tours, including encounters of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis). And there are tours, when it is actually our passengers rather than the animals making our days unique.

Everyone of our guests is different, we are lucky to welcome all kinds of different ages, cultures, and nationalities on board. Some may have already experienced whales and dolphins elsewhere, some may have read lots about them, but for many this is their first encounter with marine mammals in the wild. The reaction of our guests might be very calm and withdrawn, in other cases loud and joyful – tears of joy are obviously always welcome on board! After the first moments of pure amazement, we sometimes have the chance to spend enough time with the animals to observe them and their behaviour in detail. And this is where my favourite quality comes into play – inquisitiveness. “Is this a family of dolphins?” “Do you always see them here?” “How long can they hold their breath?” “How do you study them?” – Just to name a few. The more unusual the questions, the better. It is the question that we cannot answer that makes us guides study and learn even more ourselves, it is the explanation that we can give you while putting a delighted smile on your face that make our days!

In whatever way you enjoy these marvellous moments in the wilderness – cheerfully or quietly – hopefully they are the reason enough to become more curious about our oceans!

By Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins,

Stenella

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins

16:00 Risso’s dolphins