Whales and dolphins of the Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is an autonomous region of Portugal. It is situated almost in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, about 1500 kilometres to the west from mainland Portugal. The archipelago consists of nine islands: São Miguel, Santa Maria, Terceira, Graciosa, São Jorge, Pico, Faial, Flores and Corvo. The major city of the region is Ponta Delgada on São Miguel island.

The sea around the Azores is rich in whales and dolphins. Common cetaceans include sperm whales, short-finned pilot whales, common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphins and spotted dolphins. Blue whales, fin whales, sei whales, northern bottlenose whales, Cuvier's beaked whales, Gervais' beaked whales, Sowerby's beaked whales, false killer whales and striped dolphins are less common. Humpback whales, minke whales, pygmy sperm whales and killer whales are rarely seen.

The archipelago became one of the major hunting areas of American whalers by the end of the 18th century. During the 19th century, whalers of various nations took part in the hunt of sperm whales. However, since 1870 only the inhabitants of the Azores have hunted whales here. They pursued a small-scale subsistence hunting, using no more than 10 whaling vessels, killing the whales from rowboats with hand harpoons. The carcasses were processed at coastal stations. The hunt was finally shut down in 1987. Now the Azoreans are harmless to whales. The whaleboats can be seen on festivals, as a tourist sight. Some former whalers also went to the tourist industry and earn their living conducting whale-watching tours.

The whale-watching season lasts from April until October. Lajes do Pico, situated on Pico island, seems to be the major whale-watching centre. The oldest and biggest whale-watching enterprise is Espaço Talassa, that conducts several tours daily, starting from Lajes do Pico. They also take part in whale research. Another Pico tour operator is Aqua Açores; their tours start from Lajes do Pico and from Madalena. Reminding to the old days, there are two museums focusing on whaling on this island: one in Lajes do Pico, and another one in São Roque.

Whales can also be visited starting from Horta, capital of the neighboring island Faial. Horta is the only Portuguese town whose name starts with H. The tour operator is named Horta Cetáceos.

If you have time only enough to visit Ponta Delgada (São Miguel), the capital of the region, you can yet take part in a whale-watching tour of Futurismo. Reportedly, they know a friendly white sperm whale, a late successor of Moby Dick.

On São Jorge island, there is a company named Naturitur, that reportedly operates whale-watching tours, but I was not able to open their webpage. You will be perhaps luckier. On Terceira, there is a man named João Toste, who organizes excursions of this type. He does not have a webpage; try the phone number 351-295515335.

Several foreign companies offer multi-day whale-watching holidays on the Azores, as Whale Watch Azores, Discover the World and Wild Oceans from England, or Colibri Umwelt Reisen from Germany. The Azores are also one of the destinations of the "Out of Blue" holiday packages of the famous Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Discover the World and Colibri tours are based on Pico, while WDCS chose São Jorge and Wild Oceans chose Faial as its base. Perhaps this means that these islands are equally good for whale-watching.