In the following days we sighted Sperm Whales whenever we went out with the boat. We assume that these 3 animals that are here now did not migrate during winter. The fishermen told us about Sperm Whale sightings and I saw two diving Sperm Whales from the ferry in January. But I don´t know if these two are the same we saw mating in July and August.

Text from Katharina Heyer, firmm

Photos: K.H., firmm

On July 8th 2007 and August 2nd 2007 we observed Sperm Whales matings. Concerning the Sperm Whale sightings from the 8th of August 2007, Martina Herder from Berlin sent us some very interesting pictures.(Text from Katharina Heyer, firmm)

The pictures show matings, according to our biologists. On the pictures you can see the lower jaw and the fluke of a Sperm Whale who is lying on one side.
Now we are looking forward to seeing some Sperm Whale calves this year here in the Straits of Gibraltar!

Pictures Martina Herder, Text from Michael Casanova

On Monday, March 17th, we were informed of a stranded whale. He was stranded along the steep coast, on a place where we normally do our rocky reef excursions. We assume that the stranded whale was a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale. These whales have not been seen often and are very rare here in the Straits of Gibraltar. Back on August 2nd 2004, our crew sighted 40 Beaked Whales making their way westwards, which leads us to assume that these whales might have been Cuvier’s Beaked Whales, too.

The whale was in good condition and did not smell bad yet, but a biopsy-sample had already been taken by C.R.E.M.A.. This organization collects statistics about stranded tortoises and marine mammals, taking samples to find out the cause of death.
Later we were told that another Beaked Whale was stranded a month ago.
Beaked Whales are very good divers (about 1000m deep) and they feed mainly on squids. Most of the time they can be found on the edge of a continental shelf where there are underwater canyons.

Photo: Nadine Cremer, firmm

Jörn Selling

My first boat trip of the season started with my favorites, the Fin Whales.
The day began with an emergency. The backboard machine did not start. The reason was a dirty grafting that was stuck in the Diesel pipe. The grafting had to be cleaned by sailor Diego and captain Sebastián, meaning that the passengers had to wait for 2 hours.
After leaving the harbor I could hardly believe it: We saw the little dorsal fin of a Fin Whale on the left side of the boat, about 700 m away. Then we could see a second whale which seemed to be the mother or the partner of the first one.
We drove next to the Fin Whales when Sebastian suddenly sighted a Sperm Whale who was shining in the sun, about 3 km away from us. Diego then sighted a second one. But the Sperm Whales were quite far away so we hoped to see them later.
Instead we spotted and observed some Pilot Whales and playful Bottlenose Dolphins. For the guests it was a wonderful experience. Perhaps without the mechanical problem causing the delay they would not have seen the rare Fin Whales.

Fin Whales

Sperm Whales

Fotos: firmm

After a four and a half month pause, the season started again on March 15th. Thanks to the good weather we were able to go out with the boat on the first day. So we studied the tide table and made our way towards Pueblo Blanco, south of Tarifa.
I must admit that I was quite excited: would we find whales and dolphins? If so, what kind? Had their behaviour changed during the winter?
We were delighted when we spotted them: 15 Pilot Whales, among them two calves and one newborn!
Nr. 117 was among them too, together with a calf. We are going to observe these two. I think that nr. 117 is his mother which enables us to classify its gender.

Foto: Katharina Heyer, firmm

A giant freighter with about a dozen Bottlenose Dolphins jumping in the huge bow wave passed by. Secretly I wished that the dolphins would swim towards us, and unbelieveably, after a short time, the Bottlenose Dolphins really joined us, greeting us with their jumps, their spyhoppping and tailslapping which was great fun to watch.
On our journey home towards the harbor we sighted a school of Striped Dolphins. We saw that they are all still here: the playful Bottlenose Dolphins, the Striped Dolphins and the Pilot Whale Families with their calves.

Fotos: firmm