|16-07-2019| Sperm whales, Sowerby's Beaked Whales and Risso's dolphins!

Amazing day with special encounters for our Naturalist explorers and researchers onboard. We were able to collect different data from various cetacean species. Some of them difficult to find, as the beaked whales.

Sowerby's beaked #whale in the #Azores (Mesoplodon bidens).

Sperm whales were observed to be socializing. At the afternoon expedition a young sperm whale breach out several times. Hypothesis for this behaviour are attributed to: animals need to communicate with other members of the group; animals need to remove parasites from their bodies, the splashes allow them to remove them. This amazing "jumps" out of the water are unique opportunities for us to see the complete morphology of a sperm whale.

Sperm whale "breaching" out of the water.

Fluke of the sperm whale when diving behaviour was observed.

Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) also appear during the expedition. Risso's are resident species easily observed due to the presence of the white scars at their bodies.

Thank you all for joining us on these expeditions and allowing Naturalist.pt to keep combining science and tourism!

Dra. Gisela Dionisio, researcher at Naturalist and from the University of Lisbon explaining about beaked whales ecology diet. A splash of this species is possible to observed at the image above.