2010

Well the 2010 season has now finished, although I am still hoping for 1 or 2 more days out at sea. I am always hoping for more days out at sea! Was able to get out on the 11th November and saw sperm whales. It was a group that I have seen before, once in December. So maybe they are a winter group, as opposed to some of our regular summer groups.

2010 was a great success, with animals seen from the end of March until now! Sightings included the regulars: Sperm whales, Bottlenose, Risso, Striped, Common and Spotted Dolphin, Pilot and false killer whales, even a sighting of Orcas in March! One lonley pygmy sperm whale was seen in September.  We had an amazing encounter with a group of Northern Bottlenose Whales, where instead of disappearing as usual, they hung around and we had a really good chance to observe them.

We also had a few extended encounters with what were probably Sowerby's beaked whales as well over the course of July and August.

The baleen whales returned this year and we had quite a few sightings of blue, fin and sei whales. The most exciting discovery though was a humpback whale that we saw in May had been seen in the Cape Verde Islands at the end of March!

 

One solitary Bryde's whale was observed for 2 days in a row and then disappeared. This species hasn't been seen since a group of them spent most of the summer of 2007 here.

Many of  the "regular" groups of sperm whales were observed, with the exception of "19's" group. This whale was first observed here in 1987! Maybe they spent more time off the volcano at Capelinhos where we didn't visit very often this year. I am hoping to see her next summer. So if you have seen her, let me know!

 

I am always grateful for any images like the above to match to the catalogue of sperm whale flukes I have from around the Atlantic. I collaborate with researchers from around the Azores as well as in the Caribbean, Norway and Mediterranean. So far we have found 3 male sperm whales that were seen in the Azores that were seen in Norway, and 1 female has made a journey from the Azores to the Canary Islands and back to the Azores again! With more images, detecting movements of these deep water ocean animals is possible, without disturbing them.

So for now it is back to data entry and matching photos for me. Hopefully I will be back soon with an update!