|26-05-2019 pm| Common dolphins including three week calfs, and a friendly a loggerhead seaturtle.

A group decided to experience to swim with azorean dolphins and we took the opportunity to collect further data about the behavior of the animals during each encounter. It is a simple research approach we are developing to address the impact of the activity that we will explain later on this blog.

Common dolphins

We went to the South of Faial Island, where a pod of Common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) were spotted south of Monte da Guia.

Common dolphins mating

The pod was divided in several small groups, some of them were mating and some other were just transiting.

Common dolphins mating

In this case, the animals were too busy mating and didn't care too much about people being there. But at some point they wanted more space so we kept the distance.

Our boat "Bicho do Mar", Common dolphins and Pico Island

Other groups had small calves so we just watched them.

Adult Common dolphin and young calf with only a few weeks

But the small dolphin jumped and allowed us to see its birth marks (in the image below)

The small Common dolphin jumping

During the activity we also saw some Cory's Shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) and two Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta).

Cory's Shearwaters

We could swim with one of the turtles and had a good sight of it.

Loggerhead sea turtle (from the boat)

At the end we went back to Horta, impressed with the sightings. Being so close to the animals and being able to hear them under the water is impressive.