As the whales usually travel south of Pico in their migration pattern (very few are resident) it is the perfect island to watch them nowadays. In the past the sad history is that here were the most kills of them as well – in “good” years up to 20,000 per year. The majority of them being sperm-whales, and all this mainly for the small amount of oil in their heads. Fortunately this habit has stopped (whereas the last whale was killed only in 1987), yet people still linger very much in the past and we guess if they could, they would start hunting again as soon as possible. People are not very much of a conservatory approach…

You can see this in their festivals where they hale the whalers – why not hale the whales? Why not make a festival for the preservation of the whales, etc. No – they display the old harpoons, boats and slaughter instruments…

Anyhow whale watching is getting bigger & bigger and most companies do it in a reliable and sustainable way so it can be fun! Our trip with Espaco Talassa (the pioneer since 25 years in the area http://www.espacotalassa.com/) was pre-announced as a “guaranteed dolphin tour” as no whale was seen by the guard on land – yet chances are always there…

We got a beautiful start (although late as the boat had an engine problem and needed replacements) and a Pico (the mountain has the same name as the island) in wonderful sight

That is all you see in the beginning of the dolphins – a splash in the water

And these seagulls are your constant companion on the trip

They make very funny sounds at night – sounds something like “Aua, aua äääh…”. Sometimes higher pitch (female?), sometimes very deeeeep. It’s just beautiful to hear them at night!

A jumping dolphin

And another one – all common dolphins

and – no clouds at Pico!

Everybody is keeping watch and lookout

When you disturb the resting birds they are getting airborne

which looks very nice as they have lot of weight to get into the air firsthand

another group of dolphins

mother & calf – in reality they are rather small, the mother around 1m

In the end we saw 5 different groups of common and one group of spotted dolphins, but it was a fantastic day out. So we decided to linger and enjoy the evening

Watch the weather changing

and the sunset getting better and better