Cachupa

A nice shot showing the long white pectoral fin (the longest pentadactyl limb / 'hand' in the animal  kingdom) which can reach 5m in length... the same length as our RIB! (Darren Craig)

The sea conditions were quite good today, but many of the whales that we encountered have already been sampled (either this year or last year). Deciding which ones to biopsy when given the opportunity is getting tricky. We know most whales by the scars and shapes of their dorsal fins and have a mental library of 35 or so whales that we have already sampled.... We take a hard copy of our dorsal fin catalogue out on the water with us, but there is not always time to consult this when the whales are alongside us. I didn't manage to collect any biopsies today - but I did try an ambitious 40m lob-shot which narrowly missed. Hopefully tomorrow will present more opportunities with new animals. Darren got plenty of dorsal and a few fluke ID shots.

We encountered 10 individual whales today and were treated to an array of behaviours including breaching, lob-tailing, pec-slapping, trumpet-blows, bubble-blowing and tail swipes. Trumpet blows are loud forceful blows which are a sign of aggression along with bubble-blowing and tail-swiping (side-swipes of the flukes at the surface). These behaviours were seen in escorting males as they were competing for a female (who seemed more interested in our boat than the males!).

A female whale off Praia do Chaves in only 11m of water (Darren Craig)                                   

Lips are well and truly chapped now and the farmers tans are coming along nicely. We have been on the water all day every day since arriving here 8 days ago and are looking forward to a rest day when/if the weather dis-improves.

Bird List: magnificent frigatebird (1), brown boobie, osprey,Cape Verde shearwater, red-billed tropicbird. We had an Olympic flying fish which stayed air-borne for about 15-20 seconds covering at least 200m! We also spotted a large (2-3m) shark offshore but could not identify the species.

The day was topped off with a big feed of Cachupa - a beautiful traditional Cape Verdean stew of fish, beans, corn and cabbage.