|20230909| North of Faial with some surprises!
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During the morning trip, we were lucky to see False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) together with Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). We also saw Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and Common dolphins (Delphinus delphis). We even saw a seabird species, the Cory's shearwater (Calonectris borealis), and an invertebrate, the Portuguese Man O'War (Physalia physalis).
During the afternoon trip, we started with some shy Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that went away and then with a Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) getting some heat from the sun before the dive.
After, we had a great sighting of a juvenile group of Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) that went down to socialize, but then a big female appeared to take big breathes before her deep dive, to look for some octopus or squid!
We also found the head of a deep-sea squid (Histioteuthis sp.) and we saved it to later in our lab remove the beak and analyze it! Then, we caught and measured one of the prey of the loggerhead sea turtle, the Portuguese Man O'War (Physalia physalis).
Later, we encountered a pod of resting Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), with some calves. They even passed really close to our boat and we could hear they breathing. Close to the end of our trip, we approached a group of Cory's shearwater (Calonectris borealis) flying around and we saw them foraging together with Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), that made an amazing jump show :D
Hope you enjoyed our trip and see you next time!
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