Are companies ceasing to offer Swim-with-dolphin activities?

Fadia Al Abbar

Oct 1

7 min read

Updated: Oct 14

It's been a while since our last update! Our research is still ongoing, and we have been following tourism activities and regulations around the Azores. Quite a few things have changed since the Azores Delphis Project started, and we will walk you through them. But first, we want to answer an important question: why are tour operators considering changes to their swimming with dolphins activities, or even stopping them altogether?

Wild dolphins are not like Flipper

Swimming with dolphins sounds like a beautiful experience. After watching film and TV series like Flipper, many people imagine that dolphins enjoy human company and come looking for it. Dolphins in captivity, trained to approach their trainers, can reinforce that image of an animal that is always friendly and curious. But these Hollywood portrayals can lead us to believe that wild dolphins behave the same way. They don't. Wild dolphins have their own priorities, such as resting, feeding, socializing and caring for their calves. Whether a group tolerates swimmers depends on what they are doing at that moment, and often they choose to move away.

What happens in the wild

In practice, this puts everyone working for swim-with-dolphin companies in a difficult position. On a typical trip, clients have paid for the chance to see dolphins underwater, and that is what they expect. In this setting, the client is the boss. When a group of dolphins shows signs of avoidance, for example by changing direction, diving for longer or moving away from the boat, the sensible response would be to leave them alone. Instead, the pressure to deliver runs through the whole chain:

Skippers are expected to get swimmers in the water, so the boat repositions again and again, even after the dolphins have avoided it several times.
Biologists/guides are expected to keep searching, sometimes for a group that is clearly avoiding the vessels.
Operators need the activity to succeed, because if clients don't see dolphins underwater, they get their money back. That is bad for business.
Entire boat crews do not have clear instructions on when an activity can (and should) be cancelled

For the dolphins, this means being followed and approached repeatedly at exactly the moments they are signaling that they want space. For the people on board, it is more difficult to understand whether dolphins are being disturbed, due to the chaotic nature of fast-swimming dolphins, the excitement for the activity, potential nerves, and inexperience at sea. However, Azores Delphis Project's team have all worked as guides/skippers in swim-with-dolphin companies and confirm that some clients do notice disturbance and have raised questions and concerns: "Are the dolphins moving away from us?", "Are we bothering the dolphins?", "Why are we chasing the dolphins?", "I don't think they want us in the water". Some swimmers have even experienced dolphins charging at them!

Does it work as a business model?

This leaves us with a question we need to ask ourselves: does swimming with wild dolphins work as a business model? An activity that only succeeds when dolphins are pushed to interact after they have already shown they want to leave is difficult to justify, both for the animals and for the people trying to run a responsible operation. It is one of the reasons some operators in the Azores have started to rethink what they offer.

Let's rewind: the Bienal das Baleias, 2023

In 2023, the Bienal das Baleias (Whale Biannual meeting of all Azorean stakeholders related to whale watching) took place in Lajes do Pico, Azores. Among other goals, this meeting is dedicated to reviewing the best practices, laws and guidelines for whale watching and swimming with dolphins activities in the Azores. The Azores Delphis Project team was well represented! Dr. Laura González (co-founder) and Prof. José Azevedo (advisor) were among the organisers. Dr. Lorenzo Fiori presented results from his PhD on the effects of swimming with humpback whales in Tonga. Dr. Arianna Cecchetti presented her research on operator compliance and dolphin behavioural responses during swim with dolphins programes, and shared her recommendations for changes to the regulations.

A warning signal from down under

Dr. Fiori's research focused on swim-with-humpback whales, but his presentation highlighted also a well known example involving swimming with dolphins. In the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, dolphins were "loved too much" by tourists. Since swimming with dolphins started in 1999, Bay of Island population reduced from 278 recognizable individuals to 26 in 2020. The dolphins left the bay. This raises the question: what regulations and practices are needed to prevent the same from happening elsewhere?

Could the same happen in the Azores?

Dr. Arianna Cecchetti presented her results on swim-with-dolphin regulation compliance by tour operators and dolphin behavioural responses to swim-with-dolphin approaches.

Swimming with dolphin activities had behavioural effects on the dolphins:
- Dolphins mostly avoided the vessels
- Dolphins only approached the vessel in 1% of the encounters
Calves and newborns are most vulnerable to disturbance and were present during most encounters
A majority (50%) of the vessel approaches were J-approaches in which avoidance of the vessel was recorded

Are the rules being followed?

The pressure on the whale watching company staff we described above also shows up in the data. Dr. Arianna Cecchetti also researched the operator compliance to the swimming with dolphin activities in the Azores:

The number of attempts to swim with dolphins (i.e. the number of times the vessel had to speed up to approach the dolphins to then deploy swimmers) far exceeded what the limit established by Azores regulations. The regulation states a maximum of 3 vessel approaches to a dolphin group per boat whereas an average of 6 vessel approaches (median) per boat per dolpin group were conducted, and the maximum recorded was 23 approaches for a single vessel.
Azores regulations state that the activity should be halted when the dolphins avoid the activity. This was only inplemented in 25% of the swim with dolphin activities. Swimming with dolphin activities continued despite dolphins were avoiding the vessels.

What are the current regulatory and practice suggestions?

Dr. Arianna Cecchetti's recommendations to improve swimming with dolphins included:

Regularly monitoring dolphin populations to determine whether they are growing, stable or declining.
Surveying tourists about their experience. Was the tour run as they expected? Did they wonder whether the dolphins were harmed?
Setting clear rules on when to stop the activity. For example, at the first sign of avoidance, the first dive, or the first increase in swimming speed?
Defining what counts as a group of dolphins in terms operators can apply on the water, so it is clear when to move on to another group after one has been avoiding the vessels.

The World Cetacean Alliance, an NGO that provide responsible whale and dolphin watching guidelines, were also present in this meeting and called for:

Further research on the behavioral responses to tourism
Conducting health assessments on marine mammals in touristic areas
Monitoring regions acoustically to determine noise levels underwater
More research on the long term impact on tourism

What happened since 2023 on São Miguel, Azores?

When knowledge is shared, ideas are exchanged, and scientific findings are put into practice, change can follow. Futurismo Azores Whale Watch announced at the Bienal das Baleias that the company will cease the promotion of swimming with dolphins entirely, and is currently honoring only bookings that were made before this date. Read more about it on their website: Swimming with Dolphins Experience Shift: Ceasing Promotion.

Other operators have also made changes or have long taken a different approach:

Terra Azul Azores Whale watch stopped

Swimming with Dolphins in the high season (Summer) to reduce the impact on the dolphins during the calving season and when tourism pressure is higher.

SeaColors Expeditions has always had a

different approach swimming with dolphins opportunistically when conditions allowed for it.

Terra do Pico has never offered swimming with dolphins for conservation reasons.

What about the other islands around Portugal?

Pico, Azores

Espaco Talassa made a stong statement to be the FIRST to stop swimming with dolphins in the Azores 2017, which we highly recommend you read here, since they were the first whale watching company operating in the Azores and most experienced. See a small excerpt below:

Futurismo Azores whale watch, also operates on Pico, and also there does not offer swimming with dolphins

Faial, Azores

Azores Experiences - Whale watching and island tours stopped swimming with dolphins in 2019 related to Animal Welfare.

Terceira, Azores

All companies offer swimming with dolphins.

Madeira

Recently Blue Safari stopped offering swimming with dolphins in 2026 with a strong statement, see images below:

note: this may not be the full list of whale watching tourist operators that do NOT offer swimming with dolphins, we have filled the list to our best knowledge.

And the Azores Delphis Project?

Swimming with dolphins in the Azores is changing. Awareness is growing, and companies are starting to reduce or stop these activities, partly in response to the behavioral effects documented so far. We were partially responsible for dissemminating results in the recent years that support the well being of dolphins during swimming with dolphin activities.

Dr. Lorenzo Fiori presented our preliminary findings on Sao Miguel, Azores during the European Cetacean Society Conference in April 2025 that was co-organized by Dr. Laura Gonzalez Garcia.

The poster is online and can be read here. The findings show that dolphin groups moved closer to each other (increased group cohesion) after being approached by a vessel for the second time during swimming with dolphin activities. In ecology, tighter grouping can point towards increased vigilance, for example to protect calves. It can also suggest that the dolphins perceive the activity as a threat, much like how animals respond to predators. Studies of other dolphin populations have found that groups also surface more synchronously when boats are present, which has likewise been interpreted as a response to disturbance.

Fadia Al Abbar recently (August, 2026) reconnected with our whale watching collaborators Terra Azul and Picos de Aventura in São Miguel and presented preliminary results of the last results of the effects of swimming with dolphins on their behaviour. We can't give you any spoilers yet, but her research will be published soon, so expect another update!