An extraordinary excursion
by firmm Team
Text and photos: Albert Rietjens
Only one excursion today, but an extraordinary one. Directly in front of the harbor we meet a group of Bottlenose Dolphins. It is nice that there are also some young animals. The dolphins are on their way and don't pay much attention to us. So, we drive on ...
... and less than 10 minutes later a group of Common Dolphins approaches us, plays at the boat for a while and then moves on. So nice to watch these animals directly from above through the clear water. And again, we continue our journey...
... to meet another species of dolphins after 10 minutes. This time we see Pilot Whales. Many animals, but with greater distance to each other and not in tight groups as we are used to. But finally, also close to the boat. Today there are also many shearwaters gliding low over the sea. Sometimes they almost touch the water with their wings. We continue to go from whale family to whale family for quite a while, until the course suddenly changes drastically ...
Full speed ahead to a distant point on the Strait of Gibraltar. A Sperm Whale has been sighted! The blow of the animal has revealed his presence at a distance of about 1 to 2 km. We are approaching quickly and hopefully we will be there in time before he dives. To illustrate how difficult it is to see a Sperm Whale from a distance, look at the following pictures. (The Sperm Whale can be seen between two brackets < .... >) The images are already slightly magnified thanks to the telescope lens, but it is still far from easy to find the whale in all that water, even though he is about 18 meters long!
Luckily, he gives himself away with his blow which reaches up to 2m. He is accompanied by a few gannets and also the seagulls find the Sperm Whale interesting. They often try to land on him. We still have enough time to watch the animal, but already after a few breaths he curves his back and dives directly to the bottom of the sea. Here, to about 1.000 m! Very pleased, we start the return journey. It was already worth it ...
But less than a minute later we see another blow of another Sperm Whale further back. Again, we get there fast enough. Often the other boats don't even know what is there. Notice in the photos how the small boat passes very close to the whale. We also see this animal arching its back beautifully and diving into the depths, watched by a seagull.