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-