Caniçal Whaling Museum

We had read that a visit to the whaling museum at Caniçal is an absolute ‘must’ when in Madeira and having visited we have to agree. Whaling only started relatively late in Madeira [Ed: that seems surprisingly late], having been ‘imported’ from the Azores in 1940. It ended quite soon after, in 1983, as a part of the growing global moratorium on hunting cetaceans. The museum has only been in its current location for a few years and is extremely modern with plenty of space and lots of fascinating exhibits – whale boats, old photographs, items from the factories etc etc. Irritatingly, however, there are few written captions and the vast majority of the information is passed on by way of an audio-guide, which automatically selects the ‘right’ commentary for your location. Wandering around whilst listening to the commentary and looking at the displays just doesn’t work, as the commentary you are listening to stops mid-sentence and a new one starts up. All rather irritating! But once you are used to that foible, it’s an incredibly interesting place.

Madeiran whaling boats   

Many Azorians were involved in the US whaling fleets of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, where large whaling ships set off for a year or more at a time, with small boats on board which would be launched to hunt the whales once a pod was sighted. The Azorians took their small boat skills back to the Azores and hunted whales in the waters around the islands, using lookout posts on the islands as the ‘motherships’. When they brought whaling to Madeira, the same process was used. A network of lookout posts on Madeira, Porto Santo and Desertas Grande was developed and manned from early morning to mid-afternoon. These lookout posts were linked to the beaches from which the small whaling boats and the slightly larger launches were launched, first by maroons and semaphore signals, later by radio. As time progressed and the boats’ propulsion system changed from oar-power to diesel engine-power, the whaling industry became centralised close to Caniçal and new methods of hunting the whales were developed. Instead of harpooning the animals and letting them tire themselves out by dragging the whalling boat behind them, the whales were driven into increasingly shallow water – the noise of the boats’ engines herding them in much the same way that sheepdogs are used to herd sheep. It was very dangerous and surprisingly skilled work but, ultimately, relatively short lived as the conservation movement resulted in the end of Madeiran whaling in 1983.

Madeiran whaling began with hunting sperm whales, primarily for their highly lucrative oil but also because they are relatively easy to deal with as they don’t sink when they are dead. They later tried hunting other whales (Bryde’s whales perhaps?) but didn’t find it profitable. Initially, there were many small ‘trying’ beaches around the Madeiran coast – places where the carcasses were beached and dismembered; the blubber melted down; the oil stored in barrels; and the meat and bones cooked and ground up for fertilizer. But, in the 1950 or 1960s the process, now much more highly mechanised, was centralised at a purpose-built factory near Caniçal. Quite exactly where the factory had been located we never ascertained. We wonder if its remains have been totally destroyed, a sort of cover-up of an industry that no longer has public approval, though it was probably vital in its time.

The museum’s second hall focusses on the conservation and biology of cetaceans, describing where and how they live. The presentations described how Madeiran waters have seen a large increase in both numbers and species of whales and other cetaceans in recent years and there was a good video on how whales survive deep diving in terms of blood supply, maintaining body temperature and breathing/oxygen supply. But there were also a couple of ‘Avatar’-style films about the importance of conservation, clearly aimed more at a younger audience than us, which, to us, downplayed the message that they were trying to get across. The whole thing seemed a rather strange mix, which is great shame.

But, all in all the museum proved to be a very interesting morning’s visit and we learned plenty about the history of the island’s whaling industry, short-lived though it was. In its time, it had clearly been hugely lucrative and a vital source of income for so many islanders. But we left just hoping to see a sperm whale off the coast ……… but maybe not as close as many of the whalers had seen them from their small, oar-driven boats.

Caniçal, Madeira