First sighting of Fraser’s dolphin in the Azores

Fraser's dolphin with Azores Pico Mountain in the background. Credit Maria Joana Cruz

Fraser's dolphins in the Azores - By Maria Joana

January 2008. In August 2008, a pod of Fraser's dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei) was sighted in the Azores, by the whale watching company Espaço Talassa.

The sighting was made from the south coast of Pico island. Amazingly the pod was first observed from a "vigia", a high vantage point on land used for spotting whales and dolphins off the Azores since whaling times. The pod was then carefully approached and observed closely by two whale watching boats.

The whales watching boats were carrying both marine biologists and skippers with a lot of experience in cetacean observation and were equipped with GPS and photographic equipment.

50 animals
The pod was composed by approximately 50 animals, including females, males and calves. On the first day the animals were sighted 4 miles South from São João (38º22'50''N, 28º20'10''W), the sea was agitated and there was some wind. As the boats approached, the animals were shy and evasive, diving for approximately 10 seconds and surfacing again. After 30 minutes the skippers noticed that the animals were diving for longer periods of time and surfacing farther away from the boat, and decided to leave the animals

Second sighting
On the second day the same pod was sighted 5/6 miles from Ribeiras (38º18'53''N,28º10'56''W), the sea was calm and the animals were very friendly, approaching the boats, bow riding, and performing jumps and other aerial behaviours as shown in the pictures. After 20 minutes, the entire group dived and surface far from the boats, so the skippers abandoned the animals and went on with the whale watching trip.

The whale watching season lasted till the 4 of November, with survey from land and tow boat trips per day, and the Fraser's dolphins weren't sighted again

Fraser's dolphin off the Azores. Credit Pedro Madruga.

Unusual
Fraser's dolphin has a pan tropical distribution largely between 30ºN and 30ºS, so being the Azores are much further north than one would expect to see them. At the time of the sightings the water temperature was 25º which is unusually warm for the Azores.

Fraser's dolphins
Fraser's dolphin is an oceanic species that prefers deep offshore waters, but it can be seen near shore in some areas where deep waters approaches the coast, especially the Philippines, Taiwan, and some islands of the Caribbean and the Indo-Malay archipelago.

Very few Atlantic records
Only seventeen records of Fraser's dolphin exist for the Atlantic Ocean. The only record for the South Atlantic is of four animals that stranded in March 1991 in Uruguay. In the eastern North Atlantic, reports included a mass stranding on 26 June 1984 from France, a single animal stranded in the Canary Islands in August 1983 and the sighting of 40 animals from a research vessel off the coast of West Africa. From the western North Atlantic documentation exists for a mass stranding in the Florida Keys in November 1981, one live stranding on Florida's Gulf Coast on February 1993, and five sightings in the Gulf of Mexico on 24 May 1992, 4 June 1992, 1 June 1993, 16 May 1993 and 4 September 1993.

Couresy of Espaço Talassa