Key takeaways
- More than twenty-eight cetacean species have been recorded in Madeiran waters, one of the richer lists in the eastern Atlantic.
- Bottlenose and common dolphins live here year round and account for the large majority of what visitors actually see.
- Short-finned pilot whales are the third animal you are most likely to meet, and despite the name they belong to the dolphin family.
- The largest toothed animal on earth is present here because the water is deep enough for it to hunt squid far below.
Why the list is so long
Madeiran waters have recorded a strikingly large number of cetacean species for such a small piece of ocean, and the reason is that the island offers several different habitats within a very short distance. There is the shallow inshore zone, the steep flank of the volcano, and then genuine deep ocean, all within a few kilometres of Funchal.
Animals that would normally be separated by hundreds of kilometres of shelf sea are therefore available in the same afternoon. A resident coastal dolphin and a deep-diving squid hunter can be found within sight of each other, because the water they each need is stacked up against the same island.
The bottlenose dolphin
The one most people picture and the one most likely to make your trip. Bottlenose dolphins are large for a dolphin, robust, grey, and notably curious about boats. They live around Madeira year round in groups that range from a handful of animals to several dozen, and they are the species that most often chooses to come and ride the pressure wave off the bow.
That behaviour is worth understanding because it changes what a sighting feels like. A pod that decides to bow-ride is not being pursued; it has come to the boat because riding a pressure wave is an efficient and apparently enjoyable way to travel. From the netting between the hulls you end up looking almost straight down at an animal two metres below you that is there by choice.
The common dolphin
Smaller, faster and considerably more numerous, common dolphins travel in larger and looser groups that can number in the hundreds when the feeding is good. They are the more elegant of the two, with a distinctive hourglass pattern of buff and grey along the flank that is unmistakable once you have seen it in decent light.
They tend to be busier than bottlenose dolphins and less interested in boats, moving through with a sense of purpose. A big group of common dolphins crossing in front of the bow, leaping as they go, is one of the more spectacular things this trip produces, and it happens more often in the warmer months.
A pod of dolphins surfacing in the deep water off Madeira
Pilot whales, which are dolphins
Short-finned pilot whales are the third animal you have a real chance of meeting, and the name misleads. They are members of the dolphin family, large and dark with a distinctively bulbous forehead, and they behave quite differently from the smaller dolphins.
Rather than racing about, pilot whales often log at the surface in tight social groups, resting between deep dives. They live in stable matrilineal pods, which is to say families organised around related females, and around Madeira some of these groups appear to be resident rather than transient. Coming across a resting pod is quieter than a dolphin encounter and, for many people, more affecting.
The great whales
Sperm whales are the classic deep diver and the reason bathymetry matters so much here. They hunt squid at depths that would crush most animals, and they can only exist where the water is deep enough to hold that prey. Madeira provides it within a short run from the harbour, which is why an animal most people associate with remote ocean is on the local species list at all.
Bryde's whales are the baleen whale most regularly recorded here, feeding on fish and krill in warmer water. Beyond those, the list runs on into rarer beaked whales that even experienced observers see infrequently. None of these should be expected on a given trip, and all of them are genuinely possible.
Turtles and the rest
Loggerhead turtles are the reptile on the list, usually seen as a shell and a head resting at the surface. Many are juveniles working their way around the North Atlantic gyre, a circuit that can take years and carry an individual turtle thousands of kilometres before it returns to breed.
Above the water, Cory's shearwaters are the birds you will see most, nesting on Madeira and its islets in large numbers and holding stiff-winged glides inches from the swell. Their eerie calls around the cliffs at night are one of the island's most distinctive sounds and a reminder that the seabird colonies here are internationally significant.
What you will probably actually see
Being honest about likelihood is more useful than listing everything possible. On a typical trip the realistic outcome is dolphins, most often bottlenose or common, sometimes in large numbers and sometimes right beside the boat. That is what the great majority of reviews describe.
A whale of some kind is a genuine possibility rather than a formality, and plenty of guests do record seeing both in the same three hours. The rarer species are for the lucky and the frequent. Booking with dolphins in mind and treating anything larger as a bonus is the way to come away happy.
It is also worth knowing that identification at sea is harder than a field guide suggests. What you usually get is a fin, a back and a few seconds, and telling species apart from that takes practice. Listening to the crew name what they are looking at, and why, is a large part of what you are paying for.
