Dolphins and whales around São Jorge, Faial and Pico

The ocean around São Jorge is spectacular. The clear blue water and the views on the green mountains of the islands are unique. On Pico you can make a tour of three hours at sea  with an official whale-watch organization. The best place to book such a tour is in the village of Lajes.

We are not allowed to take guests with us at sea.

Often we see big groups of dolphins, sometimes of more than hundred animals. Mostly we see common dolphins, spotted dolphins and  bottlenose dolphins. Many dolphins are curious and come very close to the boat. If we keep  the boat on a certain speed, they run from far to join us. You can have good eye contact with them when they do this. Yearly on some tours we meet striped dolphins, Risso’s dolphins and pilot whales.

Especially in August and September we regularly see spermwhales. In some cases we saw sperm whales jump out of the water. Often we see groups of spermwhales with young animals. They were very relaxed and were not disturbed by us.

In some boattrips we met killer whales, false killer whales, northern bottlenose whales and humpback whales. Almost every year in April, May and June we see fin whales (sei whale, minke whale, blue whale, fin whale). Apart from whales and dolphins we regularly saw sea-turtles, white sharks, hammerhead sharks, tuna fish, flying fish, etc.

Sperm whales

Curious sperm whales

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With clear wheather and a flat ocean you can also see dolphins and whales from the coasts of the island. On the terrace of our holiday house we saw already many animals.

Seiwhale

Around Pico