May 1, 2022 - Day One of Dominica was a good day. We got skunked for sperm whales, but we still had a fantastic day at sea.

We spent quite a few hours searching for sperm whales in the morning. Sadly there were no signs of any whales. No clicks on the hydrophone, no blows in the distance… nada. We did encounter a small pod of pygmy killer whales, but they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.

Finally, our captain saw a few dorsal fins in the distance and motored over. It was a pod of pilot whales swimming slowly along the surface. We quickly got ready and jumped in. The pod was extremely curious and came in close to look at us. I was guessing around ten individuals, turned out it was more… a lot more. We guesstimated around 20 - 25 whales in this group.

We took turns jumping in with them and had an amazing two-hour session with these beautiful whales. This was my first real-time spent with this predatory species, and I was trying to soak them in and learn as much as I could about them.

The pilot whales were swimming very slowly and in no real direction. They were all spread out, just swimming in what seemed like a big wide circle, doing random patterns. I do not know a lot, but what I am guessing and what makes the most sense to me was that they seemed be hunting.

Possibly hunting giant squid below, using sonar to detect when a squid rises from the deep, or maybe they were hunting a deep water whale, like a beaked whale or something. Not sure, but on our final jump of the day, the whales all gathered up close, and then one of them let out a whistle, and they all dove down deep and disappeared. We did not hear the whistle when we were in the water, but I captured the whistle on my gopro and the whales all dove right after. It was awesome.

We didn’t get sperm whales today, but the ocean gave us a unique and wonderful gift for our first day in Dominica. I can’t wait for tomorrow.