AZORES
A hardly known shark destination in the middle of the Atlantic. Nine main islands, mostly of with volcanic origin, form this little speck on the midatlantic ridge. The Azores, one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal, can be reached by air from Lisbon within 3.5 hours.
The Shark-school™’s base of operation is Madalena on Horta, where PICO SPORT, the partner for this Shark-School™ workshop, has its home port. Participants live either in very comfortable little apartments or small hotels.
Diving occurs exclusively from Zodiacs that are launched each from the harbor, reaching the blue shark site within about 1 hour. Depending on shark appearance we may have to chum for a while until the sharks are interested enough. No food will be in the water once we drift dive with the sharks, since our sole presence will be enough of an attractant to them. Blue sharks are pretty ideal for all type of interaction exercises since it is a typical open ocean species with a relatively low hesitation threshold. The other species that might occasionally join is the Mako. But despite its curiosity, the Mako shark is less suited to work with.
Since weather will be the main factor when diving in the open ocean, this workshop is more expedition style than any other workshop with SharkSchool™. Nevertheless during the summer months, the weather is mostly quite predictable. The workshop’s lectures will be held later in the afternoon or early evening hours at PICO SPORT.
Beside sharks, we will encounter whales and dolphins as well.
Azores's Motto:
"Antes morrer livres que em paz sujeitos"
"Rather die free than live subjugated"