The Selvagem archipelago (savage in Portuguese) became a natural reserve under jurisdiction of Madeira 1971. As such the islandgroup and surrounding part of the sea is considered one of few (if not the only) fully intact ecosystems of the North Atlantic. While this is a very sad fact in itself it was great joy to hear the rangers as well as the students (PhD students from Lisbon University) describe the islandgroup as habitat for the white-faced petrel,loggerhead seaturtles,finwhales as well as spermwhales and loads of other species.

Thousands of petrels were around the island when we arrived and we were told the story of these remarcable ocean crossing flying machines who all sailors encounter frequently out at sea. The ones still on the island were only the pups of this season. The parents left 2 weeks earlier on their annual journey to Patagonia and then further to Southafrica ! The pups needed some more time to fill up their energy supplies for the long journey and we were told that many of them die from starvation during this period due to inexperience in hunting(the one on the picture were fed by the rangers).

The day after arrival we snorkled around the whole bay. The uw-landscape is mainly rocks but with schools of different fishes in numbers you hardly see anywhere else. I saw a tuna passing by and upon return to Dora Mac there was a huge fish just standing under Dora Mac watching (it looked like some member of the tuna fish family).

Since there was rough weather approaching from NW and this is a fair weather anchorage only, we needed to depart in the afternoon .

Experiencing the Selvagem archipelago was an eye-opener. With our own eyes we could see how an intact eco-system used to look not least the underwater world and it was great to learn more about the petrel,a bird specialized in crossing oceans.