Northern Isabela and Fernandina
Today was literally a WHALE of a day! And it all started quite early as we were navigating along the northern coast of Isabela Island. We spotted a few feeding common dolphins and leaping mobula rays and then caught a brief glimpse of a Bryde’s whale as it dove to feed. This small baleen whale feeds on small schooling fish and is fairly common in the Galápagos Islands, but they are notably difficult to follow and we never saw this whale come up to breath.
Most of the passengers were on deck when I spotted a wide and strong spout a couple miles north of us. First Officer Carlos headed the Islander in that direction. There, even further away, was another whale blowing and I hesitantly suggested that they might be sperm whales, judging from the shape and direction of the blow. We were a half-mile off when the first one threw its huge fluke to the sky and dove deep amid our cheers and soon afterwards the second sperm whale also dove. Knowing that sperm whales often dive for a half hour or more, we continued on course to the morning’s visitor sire at Punta Vicente Roca.
The crew lowered our fleet of Zodiacs and we roared off for a Zodiac cruise along the coast. Naturalist Miguel radioed to the other Naturalists that he had spotted Orcas! We followed five of them along quite closely in the floating rubber boats for over an hour. What amazing views we had of these beautiful and powerful black and white whales! They dove right below us and fed on a sea turtle.
We returned to the ship and began helping ourselves to a fabulous traditional Ecuadorian buffet lunch…Naturalist Celso, on watch in the bridge, radioed to say he had spotted pilot whales! At first the guests thought I was joking, when I ran down to urge them back on deck. However the ship was indeed surrounded by dozens of short fin pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins. Third Officer Byron stopped our engines and we watched the whales dive in the clear blue, right alongside and in front of us! In total, we saw two species of dolphins and four species of whales today, which is outstanding for Galápagos!
Today was literally a WHALE of a day! And it all started quite early as we were navigating along the northern coast of Isabela Island. We spotted a few feeding common dolphins and leaping mobula rays and then caught a brief glimpse of a Bryde’s whale as it dove to feed. This small baleen whale feeds on small schooling fish and is fairly common in the Galápagos Islands, but they are notably difficult to follow and we never saw this whale come up to breath.
Most of the passengers were on deck when I spotted a wide and strong spout a couple miles north of us. First Officer Carlos headed the Islander in that direction. There, even further away, was another whale blowing and I hesitantly suggested that they might be sperm whales, judging from the shape and direction of the blow. We were a half-mile off when the first one threw its huge fluke to the sky and dove deep amid our cheers and soon afterwards the second sperm whale also dove. Knowing that sperm whales often dive for a half hour or more, we continued on course to the morning’s visitor sire at Punta Vicente Roca.
The crew lowered our fleet of Zodiacs and we roared off for a Zodiac cruise along the coast. Naturalist Miguel radioed to the other Naturalists that he had spotted Orcas! We followed five of them along quite closely in the floating rubber boats for over an hour. What amazing views we had of these beautiful and powerful black and white whales! They dove right below us and fed on a sea turtle.
We returned to the ship and began helping ourselves to a fabulous traditional Ecuadorian buffet lunch…Naturalist Celso, on watch in the bridge, radioed to say he had spotted pilot whales! At first the guests thought I was joking, when I ran down to urge them back on deck. However the ship was indeed surrounded by dozens of short fin pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins. Third Officer Byron stopped our engines and we watched the whales dive in the clear blue, right alongside and in front of us! In total, we saw two species of dolphins and four species of whales today, which is outstanding for Galápagos!
