The encounter we had was very brief, but surprising and intense. We were sailing along Madeira’s coastline this morning, leaving from Funchal Marina, and heading towards the west side with an ocean a little bit agitated.
Our spotters didn’t have anything in sight, so we were just exploring the area looking for animals. Out of nowhere, the captain saw a big animal jumping out of the water, around 25-30 meters away from our boat.
We saw them jumping several times, I had the time to take the camera out but unfortunately didn’t get to capture most of the jumps.
In total, they probably jumped 6-8 times. It was at least 2 of them jumping together, but we counted 4 animals in the pod.
After this series of jumps, we managed to see them a little bit at the surface before they dove and disappeared in the rough ocean.
We were not totally sure about the species at first (hesitating between Sowerby and Gervais) But after a closer look at the pictures, we could identify them as the Gervais Beaked Whales.
In Madeira, we knew they could be encountered, but it was the first time for me and the captain of the boat! The passengers got really confused before realizing how lucky they were because we both were very excited about the encounter.
– Florine
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