Exceptional Sperm Whale sightings in the summer

Text: Christine, Photos: firmm

August is at its best this season.

In the first days of the month the Orcas finally appeared. We also had wonderful encounters with large groups of Common Dolphins, Striped Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins and Pilot Whales. Even Fin Whales were seen. The only whale species still missing in these last days was the Sperm Whale. But since they usually come to the Strait of Gibraltar in spring and sometimes in autumn, we did not expect the impressive giants in the middle of summer.

All the bigger was the surprise, when on August 10^th during three different trips we were able to count 9 Sperm Whale sightings in total!

Around noon we did not see any Orcas on the 3-hour trip, but we did see Striped Dolphins, many Pilot Whales and finally two Sperm Whales, near the big cargo port of Tangier-MED.

On the following trip in the early afternoon we saw, besides the many dolphin groups and Pilot Whales, again two individual Sperm Whales, and later even a group of three.

But the highlight was the last trip of the day: two Sperm Whales swam parallel to our boat for a long time until they finally went to sleep. To do so, the Sperm Whales took a vertical position, where we could see the blowhole on the left side of the head very well.

But suddenly one of them dived down and jumped out of the water twice!

This is something you rarely see, and all the guests were thrilled.

At the end we were accompanied by very active groups of Common and Striped Dolphins that were jumping all around the firmm boat. his was the end of this extraordinary Sperm Whale day in summer. We are already curious about the sightings that we will encounter during the next days.