The Whaling Museum on Pico hosted the launch of the catalogue titled as “Património Baleeiro dos Açores – Herança e Modernidade” (Azorean Whaling Heritage – Legacy and Modernity) last Friday.

The initiative is part of the Baleiaçor project that focused on the recovery of ten whaling boats and a tow boat as well as on the digitalisation of the documents in possession of the Maritime Delegations of São Roque and Lajes do Pico.

This project, whose physical and financial implementation took place between 2008 and 2011, has a budget of 450,000 Euros and it was co-founded by the Community Fund EEAGrants (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) in the amount of 382,925 Euros.

At the launching ceremony, the Regional Director for Culture, Jorge Bruno, highlighted the importance of the project to the island of Pico and to the Azores as well, stressing that the whaling culture has become a “brand image and the identity” of the Azores.

The organisation of an international seminar on whaling themes and the support the several whaling boats regattas were other initiatives included in a project which, according to the Director of the Pico Museum, Manuel Costa Jr., should be regarded as “a project of national reference, perhaps one of the most emblematic to be implemented in Portugal in recent years.”

This catalogue was produced and coordinated by the Pico Museum, an entity that also contributed to the accomplishment of the major operational objectives of the project in the field.

The launching session of the catalogue on the recovery of the whaling heritage was also attended by the Ambassador of Norway in Portugal, Inga Magistad, and the Coordinator of the EEA Grants Financial Mechanism, Ana Resende, representing the co-financing and coordinating entities of the project.