However, it is on the island of Pico that you will find the Santo Amaro boatyard, the main shipbuilding business in the Azores. On the island, you will also find some of the archipelago’s main fishing traditions, and you should definitely make sure to visit some of its villages.

Calheta do Nesquim is an old and important port, a typical base for whaling, with its small tugboats and elegant canoes. It was here that the first boat was fitted out specifically for the purpose of hunting sperm whales.

Ribeiras is a fishing port with long traditions of seafaring.

Lajes do Pico was the first settlement on the island, later becoming an important commercial fishing port and whaling centre for many centuries.

Its old stone houses with their long balconies bear testimony to the village’s opulent past.

Housed in the former boathouse known as the Antiga Casa dos Botes, the Museu dos Baleeiros contains an important collection of scrimshaw and other pieces made from bones and ivory, as well as the main artefacts of the whaling industry, which can also be seen at the Museu da Indústria Baleeira, in São Roque.

Whilst the mythical whales and sperm whales belong to the group of marine animals that people our imaginations, the fishing villages of Pico island are also a destination that cannot be missed.