Wildlife
Whale Watching inSão Tomé and Príncipe
Humpback whales pass through the waters from July to October. We do not offer whale watching trips. This page explains why.
Why we do not offer whale watching here
Responsible whale watching depends on operators who follow recognised international guidelines: keeping a set distance, limiting time near the animals, approaching from the side and rear rather than head on, never boxing animals in, and backing off when an animal moves away. In places where whale watching is done well, operators are licensed, trained, and held to a written code of conduct.
São Tomé and Príncipe has none of that yet. There is no national licensing scheme for whale watching, no code of conduct that operators are signed up to, and no register of trained operators working to international standards. Without that framework, a boat trip to find whales is not a managed wildlife encounter. It is an unregulated approach to wild animals, and it can do real harm, especially to mothers and calves.
You cannot swim with the dolphins here, and you should not anywhere
People also ask about swimming with dolphins. We do not arrange this, and we would ask you not to seek it out. Dolphins use the calm coastal waters to rest, feed, socialise, and care for their young. When swimmers and boats push in, the animals break off what they are doing to investigate or avoid people, and that lost energy is energy taken from survival, breeding, and raising calves. Done repeatedly, it can drive a pod to abandon an area entirely. Close contact also habituates wild dolphins to humans, which leaves them more exposed to boat strikes and fishing gear. In many countries this kind of pursuit is treated as illegal harassment. Here there is no one regulating it, which makes restraint a matter of personal responsibility. Watch from a distance, stay quiet, never chase, feed, or touch, and let the animals set the terms.
The science is not there yet
The cetaceans of São Tomé and Príncipe are still poorly studied. Research has confirmed a humpback breeding presence and at least twelve cetacean species in these waters, but the work needed to understand how many animals there are, where they concentrate, and how they respond to boats is still in its early stages. Until that research shows that watching can be done sustainably, the responsible position is not to add boat pressure to animals we do not yet understand.
That is why we will not offer whale watching until the research supports it and proper guidelines are in place. If that changes, this page will change with it.
The national picture
There is a wider context worth being honest about. At its first International Whaling Commission meeting as a member, in 2018, São Tomé and Príncipe voted alongside Japan and other pro whaling nations against a proposed South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary. The country has no developed framework protecting cetaceans in its own waters. That is the backdrop against which any whale or dolphin tourism here operates, and another reason we think the careful path is the right one until protections catch up.
The animals are already under pressure
This is not a precautionary worry in the abstract. Whale shark numbers gathering in São Tomé and Príncipe waters are estimated to have roughly halved over the past seventy five years. These are endangered animals in waters affected by overfishing and illegal fishing. The last thing they need is unmanaged tourist traffic added on top.
The people doing the real work
Rather than sell you a trip, we would rather point you to the organisations studying and protecting these animals.
The Blue Marine Foundation, working with local partner Over the Swell and São Toméan fishers, monitors whale sharks and has helped secure their inclusion as a protected species in new national legislation. Over the Swell runs local surveillance teams, has trained former spear fishers as conservation rangers, and has engaged thousands of artisanal fishers in protecting these animals.
EDMAKTUB, through its Sacet Project, built the first humpback whale photo identification catalogue for the region, identifying more than a hundred individual whales and matching several through the global Happywhale database to confirm their movements across the South Atlantic.
If you see a whale, dolphin, or whale shark, report it
The single most useful thing a visitor can do is record what they see. Citizen sightings genuinely help researchers map where these animals are and when.
If you photograph a whale or dolphin, especially a clear shot of a humpback tail fluke, submit it to Happywhale. Their system matches individual animals and adds your sighting to the global record. If you see a whale shark, report it to Over the Swell, who run the local whale shark monitoring effort. Note the date, location, number of animals, and what they were doing, and include a photo if you safely can.
What we do offer
We can still help you experience the marine life here responsibly, from land based viewing during humpback season and general island travel planning. If you want to build a trip around the season without an unregulated boat chase, we are happy to help.