The sea around the Azores is one of the best places in the world to see whales. In the game you photograph them from your boat at a safe distance, spot the islands’ birds, free turtles caught in drifting nets and carry cagarro chicks back to the sea.
Whales and dolphins
- Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus
- All year round: the Azores have resident families, and the lookouts once watched for them from every headland.
- Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus
- Mostly in spring, roughly from March to June, feeding on their way north.
- Fin whale Balaenoptera physalus
- Mostly in spring and early summer, passing the islands on migration.
- Common dolphin Delphinus delphis
- All year, often in large, fast groups that ride a boat’s bow wave.
- Bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus
- All year; some live around the islands and others pass through.
- Risso’s dolphin Grampus griseus
- All year; pale and scarred with age, they are often seen close to the islands.
Seasons in the real sea vary from year to year. In the game, the naturalist’s year passes in an evening: each game day is a season.
Birds
- Cory’s shearwater · Cagarro
- From late February to November. Their chicks leave the nests in late October and November, and the lights of the towns confuse them: islanders gather the grounded chicks and release them at sea. In the game: At sea near Corvo, at night.
- Azores bullfinch · Priolo
- All year, only in the laurel forest of the Pico da Vara on São Miguel: one of the rarest birds in Europe. In the game: São Miguel’s laurel forest.
- Common tern · Garajau
- From spring to early autumn, nesting on islets and shores. In the game: Around the harbours by day.
- Azores buzzard · Milhafre
- All year: the bird the early settlers mistook for a goshawk, açor, which may have given the islands their name. In the game: Over island pastures.
Watching them well
The game asks for the manners of the real whale-watchers: photograph from a distance and let the whales be. Fishing stops while a whale is at the surface nearby.