"Azores again" - OR - "No Mako... again"

I'd like to share some highlight from my recent trip to the Azores.
This year I did not have much luck with my health and the weather.
Paranasal and frontal sinuses been blocked and I had no chance to
enjoy the pre booked boot trips as I would have loved to.
And additionally the weather was not the best for that that time 
of the year. 

We did two trips for seeing the Mobula's and two for the Blue shark's / Mako's 

1. Mobula = 3 Mobulas
2. Mobula = 41 Mobula's and a small Whale shark

1. Blue shark = 2 Blue, one around the boat for over 3h!
2. Blue shark = stayed nearly 8h on the boat and not even one. 

This year is by fare the worst year the local operators saying.
3 Mobulas on one trip is one of the lowest rates they ever had
for a very long time and the dropping number of sharks...

For sure we all know why the number of sharks is decreasing.
If not, there are plenty of papers and articles to find online.
Just one which is related to the Azores and which will help to find the right
busswords to dig deeper into this wil be this one.
http://www.sharkproject.org/
But after hearing different opinions from local fisherman, I guess
it could be a mixture of some more factors, all coming together 

1. El Niño / North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)

• We know 2015 could be one or the worst El Niño's as recorded till now. And we also know that El Nino can effect NAO.

• Water temperature is warmer around the Azores as normal the locals say.

• Fisherman say sad this year is a low for Tuna fishing. Especially The Number of Bluefin Tuna catches around the Islands was very low this year. 

2. Shark Fishing 

• We know the portuguese fisherman are catching more sharks then ever.

3. Birth cycle of Blue sharks? 

• I heard a couple of story from spearfisher's that they encountered many baby/juvenile Blue Sharks around the Islands this year 

At least all of this points make sence and are very interesting from a
science perspective. I would love to get some insight into some science data
about this points and hopefully someone is releasing some papers about this soon. 

But now enjoy

(Thanks to Rike for the first Picture)

No Shortfin Mako...

...but Blue Sharks all around us ;)

I had no time time to write till now. The day before yesterday, Greg and I were on a trip with 4 other

freedivers, including Fred Buyle, french friends of him and a "local" dutch guy, Gjalt. Meeting Fred was quite nice, because I really love his work as a photographer and also his conservation work he did with his friend William Winram.

Even less than five minutes when we arrived, we had the first blue sharks circling our boat. Not easy to go into the water as quickly as possible, when there is only one small deck-entrance and everybody wanted to be the first one ;)

The first one was very curious and I was surprised how calm and relaxed it was. The conditions were absolutely perfect! Best weather, clear and calm water, and after some time we had 5 sharks around us. I only saw one female, forgot to ask the others. After over 3 hours spending in the water in my 3mm wet suit, I needed a break to warm up, for me it was also enough. Maybe if I had a photo camera with me, I had spended some more time, but with my gopro I had a lot of good sequences to cut in the next weeks ;)

But now some pictures, enjoy! (Thanks again to Greg for most of the pictures)

Later Fred invited us to his house were his french friends prepared some parrotfish Polynesian-Style (mhh I love it!!!) and me cooking some spaghetti (my special azores edition ;)). We had some nice talks about freediving, local problems (rabbits) and other misc stuff. The Clock was ticking very fast and we had to take the latest ferry back to Pico. Hopefully we will do this again. Nice people and an awesome day!

Thanks!