After 15 minutes already, we discovered a blow. That`s no Sperm whale, but too small for a Fin whale… Strange! Yes, it must be a Fin whale, but a little one. It is hardly moving. Could it be a Minke whale? This species we see only once in a blue moon.

The young Fin whale (picture: firmm®)

We were observing the animal for quite a while with suspense, when suddenly a big Fin whale emerged directly besides the little one, supposedly the calve’s mother.

They were surrounded by little Striped Dolphins, which came curiously to our boat again and again. What extremes! The little Striped (or blue-white) Dolphins, with a size of only 2 meters and the Fin whale mother, with a size of about 22 meters with a calve of 12 meters. (picture below: Carine Zimmermann)

After this exciting beginning we continued our boat trip southbound towards the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar, where we soon encountered a family of Pilot whales. As if we had called them, some curious Bottlenose dolphins joined us just a moment later. Nevertheless I let ramble my gaze, because I got the feeling that on this side of the Strait also Sperm whales could appear. And sure enough, after another half hour I espied the first blow of a Sperm whale and on our way there I saw another big blow in the distance, where we could observe a little bit later the diving tail fin (picture below: Carine Zimmermann). The excitement on the boat was immense and the people did not know where to look first!

Unfortunately a big cargo was navigating directly towards the Sperm whale, which did not seem to descend. I wanted to shout “dive!”, but of course the whale did not react. Right on time it let itself sink when a moment later the big cargo passed it closely. A short time later it appeared again, thank God without any injuries! These are always anxious moments and I remember the promises of the Spanish ministry in February, that big cargos have to be advised to be attentive in times, when there are many Sperm whales in the Strait. Unfortunately we never have heard such a radiogram up to now. Regrettably it will probably take some more years until this will be implemented. All the more important it is, that we continue to plead for the animals in the Strait. This Sperm whale descended comfortably after having prepared itself enough for the next dive. It is always a unique adventure to see how it moves the body for descending in a majestic way.

Suddenly a third Sperm whale emerged very closely just a moment later to round off the eventful boat trip. The guests, especially the many children, could not stop marvelling!

2 different types of dolphins, the Pilot whales, a mother Fin whale together with a calve and 3 Sperm whales! Even for us, being on the boat many times, don’t experience such sightings every day!

-KH-

Not only the mothers who participated on the boat trip but also the other guests had the pleasure of making a wonderful experience today on Mother`s Day. Soon we saw the first Pilot whales and then also Bottlenose dolphins appeared. They showed an active behavior and joined us nearly for the whole trip. One of their favorite activities was “fluking” - that`s the behavior when they stretch their tail fin into the air and seem to beck.

They interacted a lot with the thrilled passengers and sometimes even the cameras got a splash of water or two. They jumped around the boat and at times we did not know where to look. Suddenly - when we thought the peak of the spectacle was reached - the majestic back of a Fin whale appeared amidst the jumping dolphins. This happening definitely exceeded all our expectations and could not be topped anymore!
The Bottlenose dolphins acted as an indicator for the Fin whale’s whereabouts, resp. where it would come back to the surface to breathe, as they were riding in its bow waves. We were following the animals for a period of time in an adequate distance, but close enough for gathering unforgettable impressions.

First we could see the blow from the 2 blow holes of the Baleen whale, then the giant back appeared with its sickle shaped fin. All of us fused breathlessly the gigantic marine mammal until it disappeared in the waves…and came back a little bit later for amazing us again. What an original present on Mother`s Day!

-Dorianne, Carine-

On the right side there is the Fin whale swimming and at the same time in front of the whale the Bottlenose dolphins are jumping.

All pictures: K.H. firmm®

For the fourth time already, Professor David G. Senn from the University of Basel came to Tarifa with one of his courses. From April 24 to May 03, 2007 the students had a look into several marine biological themes with the common focus in the field of plankton and - of course - the whales.
If possible, plankton samples were taken out of the ocean every day, which were observed and investigated afterwards under the microscope. We noticed a strong similarity between the composition of plankton found last year and this year. At the beginning we could watch a lot of winged snails and of course there were many copepods. At the end of the course we also saw other organisms under the microscope, for example salps.
Besides we also had a lot of sightings of whales and dolphins. Most of the participants were lucky to see not only Bottlenose Dolphins, Common Dolphins and Striped Dolphins but also Sperm Whales.

pictures above: left side: winged snail ; right side: foraminifers ; (pictures:casi)

The first part of the course served to adjust the participants to the marine biology and to give them the basics and helpful suggestions. They needed those suggestions in the second part of the course for being acquainted with different themes, which they presented afterwards. Besides the introductory lectures we also did excursions to the littoral with the purpose of creating a holistic idea of marine habitats.

picture above: Professor Senn and some students at the littoral (Picture: firmm)

pictures above: presentations take place and questions are discussed; (pictures: casi)

Besides the scientific work there was enough time to get to know Tarifa with its bars and restaurants.

-casi-

The biologists from firmm® used the year of the dolphin to present 2 data evaluations at the yearly ECS-conference (ECS = european cetacean society) in San Sebastian. The results were printed as posters and can be downloaded on the page of firmm® as a pdf http://www.firmm.org/de/forschung.html

Apart from the fact, that San Sebastian (for the native Basques “Donosti”) is a wonderful town with its tapas and its architecture, the exchange of ideas with the science was very informative. Besides the more and less interesting talks we could learn a lot about the different works at the Strait of Gibraltar.

One of our posters is about the migrating Fin whales near Tarifa and the other one is about the habitation of the Pilot Whales in relation to the tides.

We know that the Fin whales migrate through the Strait of Gibraltar but still we do not know for sure which population they belong to. With our posters we presented for the first time a calculation about the number of the whales, which migrate the Strait. It is only an approximate value and for its accurate determination we are missing some data. At least it gives a first impression about the range of the migration.

The data of the Pilot whales of the last years had been evaluated statistically and the pattern of movement in conjunction with the tides were analysed. It turned out that the animals move back and forth in the Strait of Gibraltar between low and high tide. During low tide we can see them more in eastern areas and during high tide more in western areas. The distance between the 2 areas is about 1.25-4 nautical miles (approximately 2.3-7.5km). This shows that the tides have an effect on the pattern of movement of the Pilot whales. This could be useful concerning further regulations of shipping traffic in the Strait of Gibraltar .

picture above: the lecture room where there were short lectures concerning scientific work given during the whole day

the exposition of posters in the basement

the congress center in San Sebastian

The San Sebastian of San Sebastian

Pictures : M.Casanova

-casi,Jörn-