2011 Dates & Prices

Due to a few technical problems our 2011 dates have not been published on the website. Any questions, email info@whalewatchazores.com 

WHALE WATCH AZORES TOURS 2011

                                                         €                      Duration in nights                           

MO4 - WE13 APR                  Fully Booked                         9                           

SA16 – MO25 APR                Fully Booked                         9                            

TH28 APR – SA7 MAY          Fully Booked                         9                            

TU10- TH19 MAY                  Fully Booked                          9                             

SA21MAY – MO30 MAY          €1,520                                  9                           

SU5 – TU14 JUNE                      €1.520                                  9                             

TH16 – SA25 JUNE                   €1,520                                   9                             

MO27 JUNE – WE6 JULY         €1,640                                  9                          

FR8 – SU17 JULY                      €1,640                                  9                             

TU19 – TH28 JULY                    €1,640                                  9                            

SA30 JULY – MO8 AUG           €1,640                                 9                                 

MO15 – WE24AUG                   €1.640                                  9                             

FR26 – SU4 SEP                         €1,520                                  9                             

TU6 – TH15 SEP                         €1,520                                  9                            

SA17 - MO26 SEP                      €1,520                                 9                            

WE28 SEPT – FR7 OCT             €1,520                                 9                              

5 Night  SHORT BREAK TOURS

TH16 – TU21 JUNE                       €840                                 5                             

MO20 – SA25 JUNE                     €840                                 5                            

MO27 JUNE– SA2 JULY              €840                                5                            

FR1 –WE6 JULY                           €895                                5                             

FR8 – WE13 JULY                        €895                                5                             

TU12  - SU17 JULY                       €895                                5                            

TU19 – SU24 JULY                       €895                                5                             

SA23 – TH28 JULY                       €895                                5                             

SA30 JULY- TH4 AUGUST          €895                                5                            

WE3 AUG- MO8 AUG                  €895                                5                             

          *** All Accommodation in 4 STAR HOTEL ***

    Single room supplement is 175 / 295€ (9 night tours
                                   low/high season) 
              95 / 175€ pp (5 night tours low/high season)  

Weather

Well while most of you on the mainland of Europe are suffering from snow, ice and cold, I am suffering from too much wind! And also cold - if you can count 12-14 degrees as cold! Probably not, considering that in many places it has been below 0 for some time. There has even been snow on the top of Pico! That does not usually arrive until Feb/March!

 There has been no whale watching from Faial since the 19th November, although we did not actually see any whales, we did find some Risso's dolphin.

I have had two rather exciting rides over to Sao Jorge which is about 20 miles from Horta. Conditions were not favorable for spotting! The first trip the waves (4m) were coming from the NW, so we had a nice ride over, but was not so pleasant on the way home and the second trip was the reverse - the wind and waves were from the E - so it should have been a pleasant trip home, except that we were driving in the dark and the waves kept trying to skew the boat around! I did manage to spot 2 dolphins in phosphorescence! I have no idea what type of dolphin they were, although the most likely suspects would be common dolphin - but I was unable to see anything but a couple of bodies and then they vanished! I am sure they were enjoying the waves more than we were!

Well I think it is now time for a cup of tea!

2010

Well the 2010 season has now finished, although I am still hoping for 1 or 2 more days out at sea. I am always hoping for more days out at sea! Was able to get out on the 11th November and saw sperm whales. It was a group that I have seen before, once in December. So maybe they are a winter group, as opposed to some of our regular summer groups.

2010 was a great success, with animals seen from the end of March until now! Sightings included the regulars: Sperm whales, Bottlenose, Risso, Striped, Common and Spotted Dolphin, Pilot and false killer whales, even a sighting of Orcas in March! One lonley pygmy sperm whale was seen in September.  We had an amazing encounter with a group of Northern Bottlenose Whales, where instead of disappearing as usual, they hung around and we had a really good chance to observe them.

We also had a few extended encounters with what were probably Sowerby's beaked whales as well over the course of July and August.

The baleen whales returned this year and we had quite a few sightings of blue, fin and sei whales. The most exciting discovery though was a humpback whale that we saw in May had been seen in the Cape Verde Islands at the end of March!

 

One solitary Bryde's whale was observed for 2 days in a row and then disappeared. This species hasn't been seen since a group of them spent most of the summer of 2007 here.

Many of  the "regular" groups of sperm whales were observed, with the exception of "19's" group. This whale was first observed here in 1987! Maybe they spent more time off the volcano at Capelinhos where we didn't visit very often this year. I am hoping to see her next summer. So if you have seen her, let me know!

 

I am always grateful for any images like the above to match to the catalogue of sperm whale flukes I have from around the Atlantic. I collaborate with researchers from around the Azores as well as in the Caribbean, Norway and Mediterranean. So far we have found 3 male sperm whales that were seen in the Azores that were seen in Norway, and 1 female has made a journey from the Azores to the Canary Islands and back to the Azores again! With more images, detecting movements of these deep water ocean animals is possible, without disturbing them.

So for now it is back to data entry and matching photos for me. Hopefully I will be back soon with an update!