14.06.2024 – Ode to Pilot whales

I want to dedicate today to my favourite cetacean species, Pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Short-finned pilot whales, to be more specific, were the stars of two of our four tours our adventures out in the sea today. I believe, anyone who went on board with me would have been able to tell, and hopefully also to share, my excitement about them. Pilot whales are impressive creatures, not only because of their looks – their massive, helmet-like, black heads, are always the first thing to appear at the surface. These large “melon” heads help to focus sound waves as they go on deep dives in search of their favourite meal, which are squid. It is something hard to imagine, as we often, including today, see them logging calmly at the surface, but pilot whales got nicknamed “Cheetahs of the deep sea”, being able to perform high speed dives up to 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in only 15 minutes time (see N. A. Soto et al., 2008 for further reading). But this is not the main reason why I am fascinated by these beauties. Pilot whales belong to the most social species that inhabit our oceans. We had the chance to observe dozens of them in the morning, spread out over a large area; in the afternoon, a much smaller, but very tightly packed family with two massive males approaching our boat up to a few meters. Even they temporally join into larger groups, as it seemed in the morning, Pilots whales will likely not separate from their families for their whole lives. Lead by older females, the “Grandmas” of the pod, they will coordinate everything they do, help each other out when feeding by babysitting each other’s calves and will always stand by each other. Quite amazing, don’t you think?

While I was still absorbed in thoughts by our pilot whales and had a hard time to stop to palavering, plenty of other members of the Oceanic dolphins (Delphinidae) crossed our way today, amongst the acrobatic Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), performing meter-high leaps, the evasive Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus), also Common dolphins (Dephinus delphis), a Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), and everyone’s favourite, the Atlantic dolphins (Stenella frontalis). The rarest visitor though, only to be confirmed after our trip, was a family of Pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps). These kinds of sightings are only possibly on a perplexingly calm day as it was today, whilst the ocean is reflecting like glass.

By Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

14:30 Striped dolphins, Pygmy sperm whales

Stenella

09:30 Pilot whales, Risso’s dolphins, Striped dolphins, Loggerhead sea turtle

13:30 Common dolphins, Pilot whales, Striped dolphins, Bottlenose dolphin

16:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Pygmy sperm whales