As you might know I work as an ORCA Ocean Conservationist on different ships, where I educate guest on the wonderful world of whales, dolphins and porpoises. I look out for these wonderful animals and gather vital data on their presence and share my passion with guests onboard. However, what do I do when it is time for me to take a proper holiday? Well, I book a holiday with my best friend to look for some more whales and dolphins! Sorry, not sorry of being addicted to whales and dolphins, I may be a proper whale- and dolphin-aholic!
Pico island
Back in April, I went on a holiday with one of my best friends, with an organised group trip by a Dutch nature travel organisation (SNP) to Pico Island, Azores (Portugal) for 9 days. The travel day was extremely long, we had a lay over of 6 hours in Lisbon and followed by our flight being diverted from Pico to the next island Horta, which meant we needed a bus transfer to the ferry and take the ferry to Pico. Once on Pico, our guide and transfer were ready and waiting for us to bring us to our pretty amazing ‘’hotel’’. Our hotel existed out of various different buildings, in which our rooms were located. The hotel buildings, looked more like houses and were surrounded by many trees and plants. The hotel grounds was very large and it even had a coastal walking route along the rock shore/cliffs, and a whale watching tower! The coastal route and whale watching tower was very convenient for our relaxing mornings and afternoons when we didn't have anything on our program. From our room we could hear the waves crash on the cliffs, so naturally we slept with the window open! Who doesn’t want to fall asleep with the sound of crashing waves and the ‘’spooky’’ calls of Cory Shearwaters.
The day where we explored Pico island
Our first full day on Pico was spent first with a relaxing morning followed by hike across the west coast of the island with our guide. We walked past two of the three, so called Mistérios (mysteries). Mistérios are areas where the lava flowed from the volcano and destroyed towns. The people who lived there back then didn’t understand the volcano and the lava flow, they started calling the affected areas Mistérios. These volcanic eruptions that created the Mistérios happened in the 16th century. The Azores lie in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America. The Azores are a chain of 9 volcanic Islands, which started forming around 36 million years ago. The islands weren’t formed at the same time. Pico is actually the youngest islands and was formed around 300 000 years ago. The last eruption of volcano Pico was in 1720. However, because of the volcanic nature of the islands, the ground is very fertile. Which causes the islands to become a beautiful lush green, with many different habitats. From almost tundra plain like, to thick dense forests, and also volcanic black rocky shores! Between all this nature, lie small villages with characteristic white houses. Which is why the Azores are sometimes described as the Hawaii of Europe! I haven't been to Hawaii yet (spoilers), looking at online images I think this is could very well be true!
The days with whales and dolphins
On the second day, we did what we really came to the Azores for: whale watching! In the morning we first walked to another whale watching tower, which is still in operations. In the Azores the whale watching companies work with land based whale watchers to spot animals and direct the boats to the area where the animals have been seen. These whale watching towers still remain from the whaling period. The Azoreans hunted mostly on sperm whales from the 18th century, the towers were important to locate the whales. When a spotter would see a whale, he would inform the village and all the men would get their rowing boats and the chase would commence. Luckily, whaling is currently forbidden and these whale watching towers, are now used to help tourist see these amazing animals in the wild. We spent an afternoon out at sea, this is where we got to see my very first Sperm whale! Seeing sperm whales was, for me, one of the main reasons to go to the Azores. The Azores are home to mostly female sperm whales with calves and pregnant females, as females don’t migrate north during the summer months. Unlike the males, who migrate north to feast on squid and fish in the cold waters of Norway.
The gestation period of sperm whale is between 14-16 months long. This means that the females remain in warmer waters year round, where they give birth and nurse their young, and where they also find enough food. Volcanic islands like the Azores and the Canaries are amazing for this. The oceans around these islands are 3000 to 4000 meters deep which causes the undercurrent to go up to the sea surface bringing nutrients from the deep up to the surface, which means food can be found for many marine animals. Sperm whales are also deep divers and hunt on squid like the giant squid which can be found in the deep sea at around 1000m deep.
I really loved seeing sperm whales, both mothers and calves. Seeing those large (12m) animals on the surface together with their small 3 to 5m calves, absolutely incredible. However, if I am really honest, the common dolphins stole the show, with their oker hourglass pattern and playful behaviour. They kept coming back to our zodiac to bow-ride! Even if we left them as our 10 minutes with them passed, they would simply swim with us until we saw a sperm whale. The sperm whale then got very annoyed with the dolphins, as the dolphins had left us to swim around the sperm whale, and dove to the deep.
We did our whale watching trips with Espaco Talassa, they were really great with their approach of the animals and kept well to the whale watching regulations, by only staying with animals for max 10 minutes and not getting to close, unless the animals came towards the boat.
Our second day at sea was our best day, we did 2 whale watching trips on one day. Especially the morning was brilliant! The morning started perfectly calm with not a ripple in sight, we saw lots of Portugese man o'war (toxic jellyfish like creature made out of different colonies of polyps) then we saw a big blow, the breathing out of a large whale. The blow was straight up column, indicating for the trained eye that this was a baleen whale. In April you have a chance to see larger whales (baleen whales), as they pass the islands on their way to their northern feeding grounds. That morning we saw sei whales and fin whales! The fin whale is the second largest animals on the planet. The whale were moving at relative speed heading north, leaving fluke prints (footprints) in their wake. Later we saw some more sperm whales, common dolphins and risso dolphins! It was my first time seeing the beautiful risso's dolphin up close! I just love these beautifully light grey almost white dolphins with their blunt cute faces. The older the risso's dolphin the whiter the individual, they become white with the scars of the many battles that they fight with each other and with their prey. The common dolphins had a proper feeding frenzy around us together with the cory shearwaters.
The stormy days with more island exploration.
The next days the weather turned for the worse and all whale watching was cancelled. The swell was to high, over 2m, and the wind to strong. Despite the weather we enjoyed the island non the less. We did some more hiking over this gorgeous island thoroughly enjoying the beauty, we visited a vineyard got to taste the wine, had a tour through a lava tube, visited the whaling museum and had another wine, liquor and local delicacies tasting. The local food and drinks were quite delicious. The lava tube tour was brilliant, I do love to visit caves, but the lava tube was very different then your normal cave. Lava tubes natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, once they cool down they tend to collapse. Sometimes the lava tube remains intact and can be visited (guided). Because of the stormy weather we got to see the island properly, we even did a bus tour around the entire island one afternoon. I definitely would like to come back to this stunning island. Maybe more in the summer time, as you then have the chance to see more (tropical) dolphin species who come to the islands with the warming of the ocean around the islands!
The last day with an unexpected dolphin species
On the last day the weather turned in favour for some more whale watching. Therefor this day was spent with a morning and afternoon whale watch. When we got to the whale watching centre, where the before each trip a briefing was given about the whale watching regulations and safety, I immediately sensed some excitement under the staff, some larger dolphins were spotted from the towers, probably a species we hadn't seen yet! With the feeling of anticipation we boarded once again the zodiacs and went out. The feeling turned out to be correct, quite soon after leaving the port we got to see another new species for me. One I didn't think I was going to see; the false killer whale! The false killer whales were followed by bottlenose dolphins, another species we hadn't seen yet throughout the week. False killer whales are a relatively unknown species for many people, they are a dolphin species and part of the blackfish family of dolphins. The blackfish family exists out of 6 dolphins species, who all of them have the word whale in their name, are mostly black, very social (family is everything) and known as ferocious predators. Other blackfish ''relatively'' better known are the pilot whales and orca (killer whale). Ferocious? Yes, they mostly eat fish, but are also known to hunt injured/weak dolphins. Which was probably why, besides the false killer whales and the bottlenose dolphins, we didn't see any other dolphins that day.
The false killer whales got their name as their skull is so similar to that of the orca. Bottlenose dolphins are known to associate with false killer whales as they can feast on the left overs. The false killer whales were definitely on the hunt and were swimming at speed, some individuals did break off their hunt to bow-ride the zodiacs, as did some of the bottlenose dolphins. We did see some more sperm whales during the day, including a tiny calf resting at the surface whilst mum was down below hunting. Another brilliant sighting that day was a loggerhead turtle! The afternoon trip got cut short as the swell was increasing again, and boy, did we noticed that. The ride back left me and my friend in the front of the zodiac absolutely drenched! Which ment once we were back at the hotel, we had to pack our suitcases with damp clothes, not ideal.
All in all this trip was very successful, and would love to go again! Next time more in the summer months to see even more dolphins! We saw:
Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)
Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis)
Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus)
Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis)
False killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens)
Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
Cory shearwater (Calonectris borealis)
Portugese man o'war (Physalia physalis)
I definitely would recommend travelling to the Azores, for the islands are stunning and if you really want to see whales and dolphins up close at a respectful distance in the wild. You have amazing chances in the Azores, the Hawaii of Europe! I have added some more photo's of the island in the my gallery under the folder Azores.
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