Whale Watching inSão Tomé and Príncipe

Humpback whales visit the waters around São Tomé and Príncipe from July to October. Join us from Porto Alegre for a small, local whale-watching trip on the Atlantic.

There are few moments on the water quite like seeing the first blow on the horizon and waiting to discover where a humpback will surface next.

From July to October, The Chocolate Islands offers whale-watching trips from Porto Alegre on the southern coast of São Tomé.

August and September are generally the main months for humpback whales around the island, including mothers travelling with calves.

This is a trip to enjoy.

We want people watching the horizon, taking photographs, asking questions and experiencing wild humpbacks in their natural environment.

We also want to do it properly.

Before launching our whale-watching trips, we contacted the World Cetacean Alliance because we wanted recognised responsible whale-watching practice to shape the operation from the first trip.

Whales are wild animals in open water. Sightings can never be guaranteed.

Our whale-watching trips leave Porto Alegre in a traditional São Tomé and Príncipe fishing boat.

This is not a luxury cruise.

The boat is open, powered by an engine and takes you properly out onto the Atlantic with a local captain who knows these waters from experience rather than from a map.

The boat is captained by JeJe, a highly experienced local captain who has worked with The Chocolate Islands since the outset.

He lives and breathes these waters.

That local knowledge matters.

Whale watching is not simply a case of following a fixed route offshore. Sea conditions change, whales move and every trip is different.

Once we leave Porto Alegre, everyone starts looking.

A distant blow may be the first sign of a humpback.

Sometimes you see a dark back break the surface. Sometimes a tail rises before disappearing beneath the water. Then comes the wait to see where the whale will appear next.

That uncertainty is part of the excitement.

Some encounters may be brief. Others may give you time to watch a whale travelling, surfacing, diving or moving with a calf.

And sometimes the Atlantic keeps its secrets and no whale is found.

We will never promise otherwise.

What we can do is give you the chance to look for humpbacks with somebody who knows these waters, while treating the animals as wildlife rather than attractions that must perform for us.

Humpback whales migrate to the waters around São Tomé and Príncipe between July and October.

August and September are generally the principal months for whale watching.

Research around São Tomé has recorded mothers with calves, making these waters particularly important during the season.

Whales can also be recorded outside the main period, but the presence of humpbacks somewhere around the islands does not mean a boat will find one on a particular day.

Sea conditions also affect what is possible.

If whale watching is an important part of your visit to São Tomé and Príncipe, July to October is the period around which to plan it.

Humpback whales are the main focus of our seasonal whale-watching trips.

Seeing one in open water is very different from seeing one in a photograph.

A blow on the horizon can suddenly become the huge back of a humpback breaking the surface only moments later.

Mothers with calves are also recorded around São Tomé and Príncipe.

Other cetaceans live in or pass through the waters around the islands, but we do not sell a checklist of species or promise what will appear during an individual trip.

You can learn more about the species recorded here in our guide to the whales and dolphins of São Tomé and Príncipe:

Whales and dolphins of São Tomé and Príncipe →

Responsible whale watching should not make the experience less enjoyable.

Quite the opposite.

The excitement comes from finding genuinely wild whales and watching what they choose to do.

When whales are located, the boat can control its own speed, direction, distance and behaviour.

The whale controls everything else.

That is how we believe whale watching should work.

Before launching, we approached the World Cetacean Alliance and began using its Global Best Practice Guidance for Responsible Whale and Dolphin Watching to help shape how our trips operate.

The guidance covers how vessels approach cetaceans, appropriate distances, time spent with animals and situations where additional care is needed.

Read the World Cetacean Alliance Global Best Practice Guidance →

Finding a whale is the exciting part.

What happens next matters too.

The World Cetacean Alliance guidance calls for vessels to slow to no-wake speed within 300 metres of cetaceans.

Approaches should be made from the side and slightly behind, travelling in a direction parallel to the animals rather than heading directly towards them or cutting across their path.

A boat should not deliberately approach a whale closer than 100 metres.

If a whale chooses to come closer to the boat, the guidance calls for the engine to be placed in neutral.

Lone calves, and whales that are resting or nursing, should be given at least 300 metres of space.

Whales should not be chased, surrounded, fed or separated from one another.

If an animal moves away or shows avoidance behaviour, it should not be pursued.

There are also limits on the amount of time boats should spend around the same animals.

None of this removes the excitement of seeing a whale.

It simply means the animal gets to decide what the encounter becomes.

We want whale watching to be good for visitors, good for the whales and good for the people who work on these waters.

JeJe's knowledge of the sea around southern São Tomé comes from years spent here.

The international guidance brings something different: established principles for how boats should behave around whales and dolphins.

We want to combine the two.

Responsible whale watching in São Tomé and Príncipe should not mean replacing local knowledge with outsiders telling local people how to work.

It should mean giving experienced local people access to recognised best practice and allowing both forms of knowledge to strengthen each other.

That is also why we are investing in the licensing of the operation.

We want whale watching to create a worthwhile local opportunity, not simply another tourism product from which the community receives little benefit.

As the operation develops, we want JeJe to be able to share what we learn with other people working on the water here.

The long-term opportunity is bigger than one boat.

It is the possibility of helping responsible whale watching develop locally while keeping local people at the centre of it.

There is an important point about the World Cetacean Alliance process.

We contacted the WCA before beginning the operation because our ambition is to become São Tomé and Príncipe's first WCA Approved whale-watching operator.

But WCA approval cannot be completed before an operator has actually begun running trips.

The assessment is based on real operating practice.

The WCA needs evidence of what happens on actual whale-watching trips, including how boats behave around cetaceans in real encounters.

That means we have to begin operating before we can build the evidence required for assessment.

It does not mean responsible practice begins later.

The responsible whale-watching practices described on this page are the standards we are using from the outset.

The sequence is therefore simple.

We begin the trips using recognised responsible guidance.

We document what happens during real encounters.

That evidence can then form part of the WCA assessment process.

At the same time, we continue working towards the licensing needed to develop the operation properly and sustainably here in São Tomé and Príncipe.

Read about the WCA Approved programme →

The waters around São Tomé are more than somewhere humpbacks simply pass on their migration.

Research has recorded mothers with calves around the island and indicates that these waters are used for calving, nursing or resting.

That makes an encounter with a mother and calf particularly special.

It also makes restraint particularly important.

A whale nursing or travelling with a young calf needs more space, not less.

The WCA guidance therefore calls for greater distance around vulnerable animals, including whales that are nursing or resting.

A mother and calf may be exactly what everybody on the boat hopes to see.

If we are fortunate enough to find them, we want to enjoy the encounter without making their need to rest or nurse secondary to our desire for a closer photograph.

Whale watching can also contribute to something beyond the trip itself.

The EDMAKTUB Association's SACET Project has carried out cetacean research around São Tomé and Príncipe.

Its work includes studying humpback behaviour, distribution and movements, and it has developed the region's first humpback whale photo-identification catalogue.

Photo-identification allows researchers to recognise individual whales from distinctive natural markings and compare sightings made at different places and times.

Read about the EDMAKTUB SACET Project →

We are not trying to create our own research project or replace organisations already doing this work.

We want to support the work that already exists.

That includes helping useful observations and photographs from our trips reach the people and platforms that can use them.

Take photographs.

Enjoy the experience.

We certainly do not expect guests to spend a whale-watching trip behaving like research scientists.

But occasionally a photograph taken simply because somebody wanted to remember the encounter can also contain useful identification information.

For humpback whales, clear photographs showing the underside of the tail fluke can be particularly useful because individual whales have distinctive markings.

If you obtain a suitable photograph during one of our trips, please consider contributing it.

You can submit photographs and sighting information directly to Happywhale:

Happywhale →

Or send the photographs to us.

If you prefer, we can help submit suitable images and the relevant sighting information on your behalf.

Useful information can include the date, approximate location, species and photographs showing identifying features.

There is one important condition.

We will never move closer to a whale, chase an animal or prolong an encounter simply to obtain a better identification photograph.

Research can benefit from responsible whale watching.

It should never become an excuse to stop practising it.

We are beginning a verified record of whales and dolphins observed during our own trips from Porto Alegre.

As our trips take place, we will add confirmed sightings here.

Where possible, records will include the date, species, general area of the encounter and photographs.

Where a photograph is suitable for identification or contribution to an existing research or citizen-science project, we can record that too.

We are starting this record with our own observations rather than filling it with second-hand reports.

No sightings are listed yet.

That will change as we have encounters that we can personally verify.

A sightings record is a history, not a promise.

A humpback seen yesterday may be many kilometres away tomorrow.

That uncertainty is part of watching wild whales.

Our whale-watching trips depart from Porto Alegre near the southern end of São Tomé.

If you are staying in São Tomé city or elsewhere on the island, the journey south needs to be part of your planning.

But Porto Alegre is also the gateway to one of the most interesting parts of São Tomé.

Whale watching can therefore become part of a day exploring the south rather than an isolated boat trip.

Our South São Tomé guide covers the region and the journey to Porto Alegre:

South São Tomé guide →