Image Credit: Luis Godinho/Visit Azores. Retrieved from edition.cnn.com
The transition away from whaling gave birth to new industries and practices – with the impetus coming from outside. In 1990, French national Serge Viallele set up the first whale watching company in the archipelago, on Pico island.
“Viallele showed that it was possible to live off the whales without killing them,” says Miguel Cravinho, co-owner of Terra Azul, a whale watching company based on São Miguel island. “The focus quickly shifted from whaling to eco-tourism, conservation and education.”
Today’s whale watching trips aren’t just fun days out for tourists; they support research, with the data collected from each of the trips used by local scientists to study behaviors and migration patterns. It is, says Cravinho, an “educational approach to whale watching.”
Nearly 20 whale watching companies currently operate across the Azores, following global best practices and guidelines issued by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), as well as local regulations.
Boats must follow whales at a maximum speed of 10 knots, can only approach from 90 degrees behind, and must stay 50 meters (164 feet) away from them – or three times that distance if there’s a mother and calf.