Lord Nelson's whale watching voyage in the Azores a great success

Lord Nelson's inaugural whale and dolphin themed voyage (LN810: 4-13 April 2012) round the Azores was a great success thanks to all the keen eyed crew. There were 24 sightings over 7 sea days. Larger whales were fewer, as expected. There were a total of 7 baleen whales but as only the blows were seen it was not possible to say which species they were. Most likely they were Fin, Sei and/or Bryde’s whales. Two Sperm whales were recorded – the biggest toothed predator on the Planet. The Common and Bottlenose dolphins were the ones most frequently encountered and in amongst a group of the latter were 3 Pygmy Killer whales. The most spectacular sighting was of nine False Killer whales (up to 20 feet long) surging around the ship as we left Terceira, then breaching (jumping clear of the water and landing with big splashes) as we left them astern.

So the totals for the voyage were:

Common dolphin 40
Bottlenose dolphin 53
Dolphin species (unable to identify from views obtained) 36
Pygmy Killer whale 3
False Killer whale 9
Sperm whale 2
Large baleen whales 7
Minke whale 1
Leatherback turtle 1

In addition, some voyage crew specialized in counting jelly fish:

Portuguese Man of War 37
Lion’s Mane jelly fish 12