24.05.2024 – Exploring the vast blue

Every day is different out on the ocean. Even though the sea conditions were ideal today, our spotter on land had difficulties to find us animals instantly. During these days, we head out to the sea anyways, because we know that nature can change within seconds and that we can still find all kind of interesting wildlife exploring the vast blue.

Exploration means driving slowly, looking for any kind of movements in or above the water. After a few moments on the boat, our skipper slowed down to show us a small group of triggerfish (Balistidae) milling near the water surface. Because of the flat calm sea, we managed to observe them in detail from above. A few meters further, we encountered Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis). Many of our passengers were surprised to hear that they are actually no jellyfish but siphonophores, a colony of organisms living together, with each unit performing a different function. As they are quite toxic, we were glad to observe these beautiful but dangerous creatures from a safe distance. We continued our journey with fast speed, which is a good sign, usually meaning that our spotter has seen something he is guiding us to. In this case, we started the with the elusive Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba). They are not an easy species to observe, as they often avoid boats. We carefully approached and managed to catch a few glimpses, but also decided to continue our journey to other areas, where our spotter had sighted yet two other species, the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) and the Short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis). It was beautiful to see how different the groups of dolphins behave, with both of the latter being quite curious around us, bow riding and allowing us very close views.

In the afternoon, conditions were similar, with parts of the tour being explorative until finding cetaceans with help of our spotter. We started with a pod of one of Madeira’s resident species, the impressive Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). This species usually prefers to maintain their distance to boats, but today they allowed us to accompany them in close proximity. Sometimes swimming on their backs, one of the dolphins started to slap it’s tail playfully onto the water surface for numerous times. While our guide had just explained us that this could be a way of communicating between the dolphins, another individual of the group seemed to answer, slapping it’s tail as well. Our oceans are full of surprises and wonders, and we as guests can only try to interpret and understand what we are observing. We went to explore, coming across Portuguese man’o war, Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis) and even small crabs while retrieving some plastic from the sea. We finished the tour with an encounter of a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins, which were feeding close to shore, before heading back to our home harbour.

by Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Click on each sighting to access the photo gallery of the correspondent trip

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Common dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Striped dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, Common dolphins

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins

16:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins

Click on each sighting to access the photo gallery of the correspondent trip