03.12.2025 – Atlantic heights

Our Stenella tour today started with a hopeful team and guests, and unfortunately ended without a sighting. We enjoyed the ride nonetheless and spent the time admiring the beautiful island of Madeira at sea while imagining what we cannot see: the island’s exciting geological history and its dynamic depths.

As the product of a hot spot, Madeira rises out of the Atlantic depths of 4000m like an underwater mountain range. Only 4% of that range is actually visible as the island of Madeira and the Desertas Islands, so essentially what we see and thrive on are the peaks. Geologically speaking Madeira is very young, only 6 million years old, with the youngest part being the islands peaks, Paul da Serra. The southwest with its amphitheatre shaped villages, many of them products of violent landslides, holds a testimony to the erosive nature of basalt.

Submerged in the Atlantic is a dramatic continuation of the islands landscape with many of the deeper valleys, such as the Encumeada valley of Ribeira Brava, continuing into the abyss. The island is flanked by two submarine plateaus that act as diversions for currents and inconvenient obstacles for deep divers like Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus).

So even if it wasn’t our lucky day out on the Atlantic, remembering that our island is an incredible product of the forces that govern our planet is worth a lot too!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Stenella

09:30 No sightings