On our first trip in the morning of the 26th of August 2006 it was evident right from the beginning that something unusual was going on. A small group of pilot whales appeared at a rather unusual spot - in the middle of the sea line between the ships that were going in and out. Normally we meet them further south, closer to the Moroccan coast. After the boat had left the group again as not to stay too long with the animals, we could not find more pilot whales or bottlenose dolphins or any other animals. The area where they normally are at this time of day was simply empty. There seemed to be no obvious reason for the absence of the animals when we suddenly saw some bigger bubbles emerging in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea. The smaller one of the two killer whale groups we have in the Strait of Gibraltar

(5 animals) was swimming calmly towards the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently the pilot whales had avoided the advancing killer whales and could therefore not be seen in their common area. It is very unusual to see the killer whales that far eastwards in the Strait of Gibraltar. So much the better was the joy of the guests on the boat who could observe these majestic hunters without being booked on a 3-hours orca trip.

Tarifa’s fishermen (one of them is Malia occasionally works as a marinero on one of our boats) even reported that in this season the killer whales are not only eating the tuna from the fishing rods but fairly everything the fishermen are catching with their lines and hooks. It seems that these very smart animals have added various other types of fish to their diet. It will be interesting to follow this development further on. The reasons for the change of their behaviour are still unknown. We do not know for sure if it is due to the fact that less and less tuna is fished or only because the killer whales have learned that they can also get other easy prey from the fishermen’s hooks.

-casi-

Alle Bilder: K. Heyer

19. August 2006 17.15h
LOLY
Regularly we meet LOLY, a female bottlenose dolphin. For 2 years her dorsal fin seems to have been infected with a fungus which has grown slowly but which seems to be stable at the moment. We know that she is a female because we have observed her in the past together with a calf. After a while the young one had the same infection as Loly. Unfortunately we don’t know anything about its destiny because we haven’t seen it in the Strait of Gibraltar for a long time.

-KH-

Loly on the 19th of August 2006 (picture: K. Heyer)

Bottlenose dolphins: On the first trip in the very early morning we saw coursing bottlenose dolphins. While the adult animals were hunting, the young ones pleased us with jumps like pirouettes.

Have you ever seen surfing killer whales? We neither, until today! Because of the astonishing announcement of the fishers that the orcas are around again in great quantities, we were going out promptly towards the Atlantic Ocean where the fishermen were fishing the red tuna.
There we met them, right at the moment when a great “hilero” began. (After the incoming tide huge waves come through the Strait of Gibraltar causing tumultuous currents. The horror for small boats.) Dolphins and pilot whales love to surf in such waves. But we didn’t know that the orcas love that as well. They stopped hunting the tuna and started to surf in the huge waves with their young ones

Buckelchen: Finally we sighted Buckelchen again in the evening, the badly injured pilot whale. His dorsal fin seems to heal well.

Sunset drive: We met Common dolphins on our way home.

all pictures: K. Heyer

-KH-

Because of the bad weather conditions the big firmm boat could only go out in the Bay of Algeciras the weekend and yesterday as well. Very often you meet big groups of common dolphins out there. On our first trip on Monday (07.08.) the participants of our course had the great luck to see one of the largest creatures of the world. They have been very close to a fin whale which just passed by in front of the bay. On their way towards the Atlantic Ocean they pass the Spanish coast. Besides some intuition you need as well some luck to observe these gigantic whales on its migration. -casi-

Picture at the top: the back of a finner with the small but distinct fin;
second picture: region of the head; you can identify the two blowholes in the front area (pictures: Diego Diaz)