Theres some Dolphins that are instantly recognisable. For us, eine of these is a gentleman, who we affectionately call „Pirate“. Sidenote! Pirate may well be a gentle lady, however, for the sake of clarity of this blog, I will refer to him as male. We call Pirate Pirate, as he is an old, grizzled dolphin missing an eye and therefore resembles a salty seadog, who may be after your ship, your goods and your money. Much like a literal Pirate, our Pirate has crew. He rolls with a gang of 8–12 other Bottlenoses, and together they terrorise the waters of Madeira! True treasure for these Bandits is not gold, but instead scabbardfish, which, as seen on our Tours today, they steal in great numbers (sometimes up to 300 out of 500 fish caught!) from unsuspecting Fishermen.
By Peter Worth
Sightings of the day
Stenella
09:30 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins
17:00 Blainville Beaked Whales
Ribeira Brava
09:30 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins