The Desertas Islands, a little-known natural sanctuary
A few kilometers from Madeira, the uninhabited Portuguese archipelago of the Desertas Islands is a 12,000-hectare marine and terrestrial nature reserve. In 2022, the Portuguese magazine “Visão” dedicated a report to the area, produced by participating in a patrol with biologists and nature wardens.
[This article was first published on our site on August 27, 2022, and republished on July 25, 2025.]
We cut the dinghy's engine and let ourselves drift with the wind. In near silence, Rosa Pires marvels at the monk seal moving around our boat: sometimes it pokes its head out of the water, sometimes it circles near the engine in a calm, natural dance. A simple observation leads the biologist to conclude that it is a young male with parasites or in the process of molting. The scene is unusual, even for Rosa Pires.
At 51, she has been working for nearly 30 years to conserve the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) – the rarest and most endangered seal in the world – in the waters around the Desertas Islands. “They don't usually behave like this; coming so close to the boat for so long. Diving like a dolphin isn't very common either, but it happens,” she murmurs, with a big smile.
The dinghy is now surrounded by three seals [lobos-marinhos] – the name by which this species is known in Madeira. Lourenço Alves, a nature warden, throws the GoPro camera into the water. The video will allow the identification of the young adult “13”, “a pup born in 2019”, thanks to its
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