10.09.2022 – Calm before the storm

In the next few days we have a storm rolling in, which means a lot of wind, rain and swell and unfortunately we won’t be able to explore the oceans as we’re used to in the summertime. As always we gave our best to find animals out there, but it seems animals or marine mammals sense the storm and for that reason we weren’t able to find too much life in the sea today. Our Zodiak made it out to where the fisherman catch the Espada (Black Scabbard) fish, with the fish unfortunately also some sharks and so we discovered a dead Cookie cutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) at the surface. As tasty as this traditional Espada fish and all other fish is, the downside of the fishing industrie is all the bycatch of sharks and other marine life.
Same as the Black Scabbard fish, the cookiecutter Sharks live in deep water, feeding on Cephalopods like Squid.
Its name refers to the feeding habit of gouging round plugs of the bodies of large Marine animals, fishes and submarines, as if cut with a cookie cutter. After a little while searching, our traditional fishing Vessel, the Ribeira Brava found a small pod of three Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) including one calf in front of Madalena do Mar. While this boat doesn’t have the furthest reach, it has even more charm and especially is it perfect to discover the ocean patiently with time and find small and calm pods like this one.
Not long and other boats also approached, so we didn’t want to create any additional stress for this mother and calf and didn’t stay long and continued our exploration to the coast.

We hope those windy days past fast, so we can get back into our favorite habitat and explore the ocean and its inhabitants.

by Paulina Kalita

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Atlantic Spotted dolphin

Stenella

10:00 Atlantic Spotted dolphin