Azores : Changes

Update from our marine conservation volunteering holiday in the Azores archipelago, working on whales, dolphins and turtles

So, our luck has changed, well the weather has changed, and this meant a shore day on Saturday. High winds and waves made it very difficult to work at sea and even harder to spot any cetaceans. So some rest, relaxation and tours of Faial were the order of the day.

Sunday brought the rain, adding to the cocktail of poor weather, but this presented the ideal opportunity to sort some data, organise some photo catalogues and begin some matching. With caffeine, biscuits and some late Easter eggs in ready supply, the team managed to sort recent catalogues for sperm whales, false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins – great progress on recent data. Some even had some creative brain power remaining to add to the harbour paintings!

Monday brought a welcome (albeit slow) improvement in the weather, so we headed out to sea once again, but our foray was short-lived (41 minutes and 15 km according the GPS). A fuel filter issue on one of the boat engines meant another change of plan – a return to port – for what turned out to be a quick repair. Refuelled on coffee, our second attempt that day was far more successful.

Exploring south of Pico, we initially encountered our customary common dolphins, but this was soon followed with a sighting of a new humpback whale. From here we pursued several sperm whales with both common dolphins and sei whales doing their best to distract us. The day ended with yet more sei whale sightings.

Despite the stuttering start, we had another good haul of data, with our slightly smaller team happy to cover all jobs required, with Stefanie being kept fairly busy on the data sheets and Joel put through her paces on the camera.

As we now enter the final days of this year’s expedition, we still have a few species on our wish list, and opportunities to add to the data.

Update from our marine conservation volunteering holiday in the Azores archipelago, working on whales, dolphins and turtles