sábado, 23 de agosto de 2008

Fraser's dolphin, Lagenodelphis hosei, are in the Azores... good or bad news ?



The Espaço Talassa team - thanks to Pedro Madruga's photograhs - records the presence of the Fraser's dolphin, Lagenodelphis hosei, (male and femelle) for the first time in the Azorean waters.
In the past five years the Espaço Talassa team has already recorded the precence of 3 species never referenced in the archipelago:
- The Bryde's whale, Balaenoptera edeni
- The Blainville's beaked whale, Mesoplodon densirostris
- The Long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas
On August 22nd around 10AM a group of approximatively 50 Fraiser's dolphins was sighted 3 miles south of São Joâo do Pico (the village of Genuíno Madruga, the Pedro's father). The behaviour of the group was not very sociable swimming away from our boats.

While clients and skippers were happy of this unexpected encounter, the question is : What is this guy doing in the Azores ? The known north limit of its distribution is more than 800 miles south (1 400 kms).... but there are still some people who say that the "global changing" is a joke !

By the way, Pico Mountian is beautiful this morning... I wish you a nice day.
Serge Viallelle

More photo of Pedro madruga at:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/azores_cetaceans/