# Blue whales off Pico
Question: When are blue whales recorded off Pico?

URL: https://picoisland.pt/whale-watching/species/blue-whale
Status: verified
Last verified: 2026-10-03

Blue whales are a spring record off Pico. OBIS holds 678 records for the waters around the island, all between March and July, in 5 of 12 months, with May the busiest. Those are sightings logged, not animals counted, and effort is seasonal too. The IUCN Red List classes the species as Endangered.

## The animal

The blue whale, *Balaenoptera musculus*, is the largest animal alive. It is a baleen whale: rather
than hunting single prey with teeth like the [sperm whale](/whale-watching/species/sperm-whale), it
takes in huge mouthfuls of water and strains out small crustaceans through plates of baleen. Its
closest relative in these records is the [fin whale](/whale-watching/species/fin-whale), the other
large rorqual logged off Pico.

## What the records show

OBIS holds 678 blue whale records inside the box of sea around Pico that this site queries. Every
one of them carries a month, and every one falls between March and July. May is the busiest month,
with 331 records. April comes next, then June, then March. July holds only a handful, and from
August to February there are none.

That shape is the most distinctive of the five species on these pages. The sperm whale is logged in
every month, the [common dolphin](/whale-watching/species/common-dolphin) from March to October. The blue
whale's records sit almost entirely inside one season, which fits an animal that passes through
these waters rather than one that stays in them. The data shows the timing; it does not by itself
show where the animals come from or go next.

## How to read that

These are records, not animals, and not a forecast. A record is one logged observation, so a single
whale followed by several boats can produce several. Records also depend on who is out looking, and
far more boats go out in the warmer months. That cuts both ways here. August and September still
produce thousands of sperm whale and dolphin records, so boats are plainly out looking, and the
absence of blue whale records in those months says more than an absence in January would.

## Conservation status

Wikidata, citing the IUCN Red List, gives the blue whale's status as **Endangered**. The species was
described by Linnaeus in 1758.

## Related

- All five species, and how the counts are built: [whale and dolphin species off Pico](/whale-watching/species).
- The rarest of them in the data: the [orca](/whale-watching/species/orca).
- Every species month by month: the [season calendar](/whale-watching/season-calendar).
- The approach rules and the licensed operators: [whale watching on Pico](/whale-watching).

Length, weight and population figures are not given here, because none has been checked against a
primary source.

## Sources

- Scientific name: Balaenoptera musculus (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42196)
- Described by: Linnaeus, 1758 (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42196)
- IUCN Red List status: Endangered (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42196)
- Blue whale records in OBIS (Pico waters): 678 (source: https://api.obis.org/v3/occurrence?scientificname=Balaenoptera+musculus&geometry=POLYGON%28%28-28.65+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.25%29%29)
- Months with records: 5 of 12 (March to July) (source: https://api.obis.org/v3/occurrence?scientificname=Balaenoptera+musculus&geometry=POLYGON%28%28-28.65+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.25%29%29)
- Busiest month in the records: May (source: https://api.obis.org/v3/occurrence?scientificname=Balaenoptera+musculus&geometry=POLYGON%28%28-28.65+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.25%29%29)
- Records in the busiest month: 331 (source: https://api.obis.org/v3/occurrence?scientificname=Balaenoptera+musculus&geometry=POLYGON%28%28-28.65+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.25%2C+-27.95+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.7%2C+-28.65+38.25%29%29)