Just another day in Porpoise Paradise!

16 March 2009

After a delightful dive at Neptune’s Cave we were motoring back to base when we spotted a large “shark like” fin on the surface. We switched direction to follow only to see more and more fins appearing all around us. We couldn’t decide whether they were whales or dolphins as their large grey and white bodies surfaced. We were joined by another boat taking lots of photos on their super lens cameras. Then we recognised the man behind the lens, it was no-other than the islands’ famous marine author Sergio Hanquet who seemed to be getting very excited by this sighting.

We observed the amazing mammals for approximately 15 minutes with the dolphins riding our bow and surfacing many times in very close proximity. We have since found out that they were Risso´s dolphins (Grampus griseus). The tail splashing and waving that one dolphin was displaying is typical for this species.

The 20 or so strong pod we spotted generally seemed to be mature individuals due to the large amounts of white on the normally grey/brown bodies they have as juveniles. There is a small community of the Risso´s dolphins here around the canaries but they are very seldom seen. Everyone on board was very impressed and felt honoured to be in the presence of such a magnificent creature.