Pilot whales?

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SelkieDVM

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Recently while crossing to the Bahamas from Fort Lauderdale on a beautiful day, we spotted a couple of pilot whales. One about 10 ft. individual passed under the bow of the vessel (a 30 ft. sailboat) and then surfaced behind us! I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't know what they were at first, just that they had to be some kind of whale. A little research later determined them to be pilot whales. Are they fairly common in this area? This would have been on the edge of the Gulf Stream and few miles off Bimini. I'm thrilled regardless - my first whale sighting in the wild! And up close too. Too bad I wasn't diving.:D
 
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I saw a pod of about 30 of them in Bonaire. We were in a six pack coming back from the first dive of the vacation, and my sixth dive, ever which was the start of my love affair with the ocean. We just cut the engine and drifted with them for about an hour. We mistook them for dolphins at first until we got closer. It was the most amazing sight. I've gone on to make over 300 dives since then, but I'll always remember how beautiful and awesome they were.

I don't know how common they are around the Bahamas, but I share your excitement at seeing them.
 
Usually they are seen off Bonaire, but that could be a "transient" pod of them in the Bahamas. They have also been spotted off Belize, and Roatan on a regular basis.

Lock Washer
 
There are several species of 'blackfish' dolphin that are found throughout the waters of the southern US & Caribbean waters, but if they were pilot whales that you saw they would almost certainly have been short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) as long-finned pilot whales are found further north in colder waters. Also, although called pilot whales, like killer whales, they are actually species of dolphin.

Short-finned pilot whales are not uncommon throughout the region but they are less commonly seen because they tend to prefer deeper waters and so are usually further from coastlines.

I couldn't post a link because I haven't made 5 posts yet, but type 'bahamas guide common whales' in to google and the first search should be a good guide to whale & dolphin species that you will find in the waters between Florida & the Bahamas.

I've just recently completed a study looking at short-finned pilot whales in the Bahamas and the terms 'transient' or 'resident' as you hear for orca (killer whales) do not really fit as there is no evidence of this type of residency patterns in pilot whales. Pilot whales do live in family groups, but they are an oceanic (they don't tend to live in bays or coastal waters) species so do not stay specifically in one area, rather they will range over very large areas. Short-finned pilot whales are found all around Bahamian waters year round and there seems to be a pretty large population there.

As for your sighting, just 2 animals is not unheard of, but it is very likely there were other members of their pod nearby, its very easy to not see all the members of a group. They are a very cool species to see though and great because they will often initially approach quite close to vessels.

As a side note, I would always advise caution with the desire to get in to the water with them, apart from the fact that they are big wild animals themselves, pods of pilot whales are often followed by oceanic shark species, such as the potentially dangerous oceanic white tip. I know of several people who have jumped in with pilot whales, only for the pod to swim on and the people find they are suddenly coming face to face with very large opportunistic sharks!
 
Thank you for this interesting information. There could easily have been more than just than the two individuals. I am not sure of the exact depth where we were, but it was at least hundreds of feet deep (the depth gauge reads a max of about 300). Only the one came close to the boat. He/she was about 10 feet long, jet black, with a blunt nose and a short, blunted but rather curved dorsal fin. It passed right under us and was probably not more than 20-30 feet away from me. Beautiful! It didn't occur to me, however, to jump in with them since we needed to make Bimini by nightfall.

Cheers,
Lilla
 
By the way: the Blackfish Dolphin group consists of:

Killer Whale (Orca), Orcinus orca
Long-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala melas
Short-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus
False Killer Whale, Pseudorca crassidens
Pygmy Killer Whale, Feresa attenuata
Melon-headed Whale, Peponocephala electra

Thought I would pass this on.

Lock Washer
 

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