Surrounded by dolphins

6 February 2019

Because Cape Verde is situated in the middle of the ocean, we always have a good chance to spot whales. And if there are no whales, at least we see dolphins. Yet, the past few trips were a bit disappointing with regards to spotting cetaceans. As we were talking about this, we saw a few dolphins jumping out of the water at quite a distance. It seemed that they were heading towards us.

It turned out to be a very large group (perhaps even a super pod!) of dolphins that were hunting. Hundreds of dolphins surrounded us. One clearly hunting, another jumping straight out of the water to land on the exact same spot! It turned out to be a mix of different species, such as the Spinner, the Spotted and the Striped dolphins.

It did not matter if you’d look up or down, left or right. Dolphins everywhere! A beautiful sight! At least for us, not so much for the flying fish that tried to escape. The Brown boobies in the sky hunted the flying fish that tried to get away from the dolphins. Local fishermen were also not pleased with the large group of dolphins, and after the pod left, they sailed back to the harbor with barely any fish and a sad face.