Whale Watch Azores

The summer of 1994 was an enormous success for us with all the whales and dolphins shown in the brochure being seen regularly. In addition we had some excellent encounters with less frequent visitors, such as beaked whales, bottlenosed whales and sei whales, the third largest whale in the world. Sperm whales were regularly seen and on one very busy day in May we had 3 8 individual, confirmed encounters, in just 7 hours and 1 minute, a whale every 11 minutes and 5 seconds! Looking at the summer as a whole we had 479 encounters with cetaceans, during 71 actual days at sea and just over 70% of those were with sperm whales. We averaged 6.5 different species per trip. The lowest number per trip was 4 (this happened only once, on the trip with the 38 sperm whales in 7 hours) and 3 trips were lucky enough to see 8 species each. High spots of the summer included spending over an hour one evening in June, with a pair of huge sei whales, circling the boat just 15 metres away; a newborn calf (complete with part of the umbilical cord) rubbing himself against the boat for 4 or 5 minutes, on a tour in July and seeing a group of 5 rare beaked whales swimming around inside the harbour at Horta, after they got lost. This happened at the end of August and lasted 25 minutes and I think we were very lucky to coax them out, using our inflatable, before they were hit by a passing boat. We were still busy in September and on one particular day we had the marvellous sight of a mixed group of around 250 striped and common dolphin, together with bottlenosed and spotted dolphin and 12 individual sperm whale encounters too.

1995 is our 3rd year of running cetacean watching tours in the Azores but our experience goes way back to 1988 when my wife Lisa joined the International Fund for Animal Welfare (I.F.A.W.) team on board the research vessel "Song of the Whale", studying cetaceans in the Azores. Since then Lisa, who is the resident naturalist on board our yacht during all tours, has spent every summer except 1992 in the Azores and is now one of the foremost experts on cetacean research in the islands. Lisa is continuing the research while you are on board, including the operation of the photo identification project on the sperm whales of the islands and in 1994, the work finally started to bear fruit with 2 very interesting developments:

  • 1. Last summer we saw a total of around 100 different sperm whales. Up until 1994 we a only reached a I 0 to 15 % re-sights level. whales that had been seen in previous years in the Azores. Last summer we increased this percentage to 20% of the whales we saw. This means that the Azores sperm whale catalogue may be starting to get up towards the maximum number of whales known to be in the area during the summers. In the near future we hope to put the data collected so far into a formulae and use the answer to make an educated guess at the actual population size of the Azores.

  • 2. We are still not quite sure whether the sperm whales stay around the islands all year, for part of the year, or are just passing through. We have lots of theories but no real proof (apart from a piece of an Azorean whalers harpoon, found in the flesh of a sperm whale, captured in Iceland). We also do not know which way the whales were going, if they were travelling. We know that a study of their stomach contents, undertaken while the whales were still being hunted in the Azores, showed that the species of squid they had eaten were prevalent mainly to the south, around the Canaries, Madeira and the Cape Verde islands. This is a very good indication of their movements, but does not prove anything conclusively, Well in 1994 we have made an a very exciting discovery using the photo identification catalogue. On 9th March 1993 the IFAW yacht "Song of the Whale" twice photographed the fluke of a sperm whale, which was given the code number 1314. It had a callous on it's dorsal fin, suggesting it was probably a female and this took place in the Canaries. We have now discovered that this same whale was seen by Lisa in July 1990, during her time as part of the research team, on "Song of the Whale" in the Azores. This is a strong indication that the sperm whales inhabiting the Azores in the summer, are seen in the Canaries in the Winter\Spring. Lisa will be writing this up as a paper for presentation in the scientific journal Archipelago. Although work of this sort is regularly done on Humpbacks, it is especially interesting here as it is the first ever proof that we have come across, of a migratory movement of sperm whales using photo identification techniques in the world. Watch this space for more news.

    • One of the most popular reasons why people choose to travel with Whale watch Azores is because your very presence on a tour, funds the research, we could not do it without you! You are also very welcome to take a full part in it. Our research is designed to be as non intrusive as possible and your participation is entirely voluntary. In 1995 we are introducing 2 new elements of research for guests to help with. Firstly we will be able to process the film that the sperm whale identification photos are taken on, during your time on board. You will have a chance to use one of our cameras to take an identification picture, which they can then try to match with a whale from the present catalogue of over 700 animals, already seen around the Azores, You can then take your very own sperm whale home! Secondly we are aiming to extend the collection of skin samples from the sperm whales after they have fluked, for use in DNA analysis. We are hoping to develop a special technique for doing this and if it is successful, we can start to build up a picture of the family relationships of the groups we see. Although work of this sort has been done on Orcas and Humpbacks, no one knows the exact relationship between members of a sperm whale pod. This really is at the forefront of cetacean research and is very exciting.

    Loggerhead turtles also feature in our research, as we take part in the Archie Carr Institute tagging programme and you are able to examine these marvellous-creatures, during the short time they are on the deck of our yacht. In 1995 we tagged 25 loggerheads and most guests had a chance to examine a turtle during their tour.

    We have some exciting new changes for the 1995 season, including the use of an improved yacht; the graceful, classic sailing ship 'Sylvana Susanna'. The vessel was designed and built in Esjberg, Denmark, by the N. P. Jensen shipyard, in 1938 and she was the last of a long line of deep sea, sailing fishing vessels. Her conversion to private use was in 1985 and we chose her because her deep keel and large sail plan, combine to give her good stability. Her massively constructed Oak beams and planking afford her a cosy traditional feel, lost in the modern world of plastic yachts, Her safety standards are very high, meeting the latest( 1 994) British Department of Transport charter boat regulations.

    For 1995 we have extended the tours to allow an extra day out on the water. Our tour length is chosen to make sure you have the maximum possibility of sighting a lot of cetaceans and we expect to have 7 to 9 days out on the water during each tour. Although summer weather in the Azores is generally very good, 2 or 3 days of poor weather conditions, on a shorter tour would seriously undermine your chances of good sightings.

    When comparing Whale Watch Azores with other companies don't forget to make sure you add up the full cost of each tour. The tour price of our holidays includes:

    Whale Watch Azores is a cetacean watching company that uses a yacht, not a yachting holiday company that happens to see cetaceans. We specialise in what we do and we are the most experienced whale watching company in the Azores. We look forward to welcoming you aboard next summer.

    Contact:

  • Chris Beer, Whale Watch Azores
  • 17, Viner Close Witney
  • OXFORD OX8 6EP
  • UK