15.08.2018 – Chatting dolphins

During our snorkeling trips we are able to encounter the dolphins in the water. Today was a good day, although we have been searching for quite a while, we managed to interact with a huge pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) a few miles out of Cabo Girão. The spotter had seen one animal breaching and directed us to the right place.

When we came closer the Spotted dolphins did what we all love them so much for: they started jumping and playing in the waves all around us. But apart from the great show on and above the surface they also came along next to the snorkelers in the water. It has been mainly juvenile animals swimming by close to check us out. They seemed to move weightlessly through the water. It was fascinating to see them glide by but it can be even more inspiring to hear them communicate.

Dolphins are able to produce a variety of sounds: whereas the clicks are mainly used for echolocation, whistles, melodic tunes and even screaming, barking or buzzing sounds are part of the dolphin language. Very deep sounds reach far through the water, they are used for large-scale orientation and communication over great distances. The whistles have an intermediate frequency. Those are the sounds with which the dolphins chat with the other members of their pod. We mainly hear this during our encounters under water.

Even though we have no idea what the Spotted dolphins might be talking about it´s very impressive to listen to them and get inspired by those conversations below the waves.

by Jan-Christopher Fischer

Sightings of the day

Stenella

08:30 (snorkeling) Atlantic spotted dolphins

15:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

18:00 Short-finned pilot whales

Ribeira Brava

09:00 Bottlenose dolphins

17:00 Short-finned pilot whales