The idea of the Azores has always conjured up images of dreamy, windswept islands of vivid green set against a backdrop of stormy blue waters. With limited knowledge of diving in the area, I had only heard of big animal sightings off Santa Maria Island during a very short season. But what about the rest? Isolated in the northeastern Atlantic, these islands had to be home to something spectacular, so I was keen to visit.

It is first light over the middle of the Atlantic, and I am already smuggling the island of Santa Maria under my skin. The Azores can feel like a geological postcard, a necklace of volcanic islands, threaded between three tectonic plates, warmed by the Gulf Stream and kept suspiciously green by Atlantic rains. That warm current is not just weather talk; it is the reason these seas nurture both temperate and subtropical life, and why Santa Maria, the archipelago’s sunniest island, feels a touch balmier and more inviting than its island neighbours.

The island group comprises nine islands, each with very different characteristics. One thing they all have in common is their nickname: “The Green Islands.”

Winter rains are massive, and summers are mild, with temperatures seldom reaching above 27°C. Lush forests and desert-like areas are home to dairy cows and sheep. The locals are friendly, and safety is not an issue. Where else can you park at an airport for free, and leave the key in the ignition when you drop off your rental car?

The Azores Platform is some 2,000m below the ocean surface, but the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is grounded on to the seabed another 2,000m below that, while the tip of Pico (the tallest island of the archipelago) is 2,350m above sea level, making the mountain that is Pico about 6,500m high in total elevation. Sat as they are, roughly halfway between the edge of southern Europe and the tip of North America, the nine islands of the oceanic archipelago offer the only shelter from the notorious seas of the North East Atlantic.

REFERENCES:
¹ Whitehead, H. 2002. Estimates of the current global population size and historical trajectory for sperm whales. Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 242.

The Azore Islands, located off Portugal in the North Atlantic Ocean, are convenient stop-overs for migrating oceanic sharks, and blue sharks congregate there in the summer months. Divers can rendezvous with them at the Condor Banks, located 35km off the island of Faial. The bank is about 180m deep, and has become a popular shark dive spot, having been the only place in the Azore Islands where fishing is prohibited.

In terms of passion and endurance, sperm whale photography poses some of the greatest challenges to the underwater photographer, both technically and physically. As well as being extremely shy, their highly developed sensory organs can discern all sound and movement for a distance of several miles. As a result, boats must maintain large distances from the whales, with freediving the only way to approach them.

Yet the whales are elusive and their behavior is nowhere near what Herman Melville described in his famous novel, “Moby Dick”. Suddenly, a bulbous head sticks high out of the water. With flippers slapping the water, the sperm whale heads straight for us in order to ram us.

 

So, I hung my law degree diploma at my parent’s house in Portugal and left for the Azores with a single goal in mind: to live in and discover a place with one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, and maybe even become an underwater photographer.