Nina Cziczek / firmm

On Sunday, April 20th, the German Television MDR´s (mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) did some filming in our office. The leading character of this broadcasting is ‘Ilse’, a man dressed as an elderly woman. Together with Robert, her companion, she travels through Andalusia and also encounters firmm in Tarifa.
After a long period of strong wind with few trips, it was a nice diversion for all of us! Instead of the usual 2 to 3 person filming team, there was a crew of 12 that invaded our office that quiet Sunday morning and caused some commotion.
After the cameras were placed, Katharina gave detailed information to “Ilse” and her team about the foundation, about herself as president as well as our daily boat trips.

Afterwards the shooting team and all our volunteers went to our meeting room where Katharina gave us (the volunteers who acted as the ‘tourists’) an introduction about the Strait of Gibraltar and the animals which are living there.
This took time to get everything set up and us on our places.

The boat trip was planned for the following Tuesday afternoon with Katharina as guide, the volunteers and the whole shooting team. Unfortunately, the sea was quite rough at the beginning, so that some of us became quite wet. Anyway, this added to the good mood on board. After a short time we saw some Pilot Whales and a school of Bottlenose Dolphins which have been joining our boat for quite a long time.
As if the animals knew that there was a shooting team on board they made a grandiose show in front of the boat with a lot of terrific jumps, tailslapping and spyhopping. Roughly speaking: the dolphins did a very good job and certainly contributed to the film in a special way.

If you are interested in watching the TV documentation: It will be broadcasted on the May 10th on MDR, at 20:15. The title is ‘Das kommt mir spanisch vor’.

Sunday, 20th of April:
Though it was raining heavily, a 12 person film team of the MDR (mitteldeutsches Fernsehen), travelling through Andalusia, visited us on Sunday. The TV crew was filming the travels of an elderly actress Ilse Bähnert who, as the climax of her trip, stopped in Tarifa to go on whale and dolphin watching expeditions with firmm .

Arrival of Daniele Grieco, producer of the documentary ‘The whales in the Strait of Gibraltar’, Stellamaris Film with Kathleen Herbst, his camera-woman.

Monday, 21st of April:
Katharina accompanies the film team to Morocco to the two new bays, which presented themselves untouched in the twinkling sun.

Arrival of Rösli’s Carreisen. Rösli Dönni was the first bus tour operator from Switzerland that attended our whale and dolphin observation courses with its guests.

Tuesday, the 22nd of April:
The MDR team and the elderly lady “Ilse” met at the harbor for a spectacular trip.

Since it was high tide when we left, we sailed directly into the high waves of the “Vasiante” (especially high waves created from the change from high to low tide). We had to go through these waves in order to reach quieter waters. Ilse flipped out totally when she saw a dozen large dolphins putting on a show, all of their free will and pure joy of life!

Tuesday, the 22nd and Wednesday, the 23rd of April:
The participants in our courses and also the group of Rösli had two wonderful sunny days with four trips with the boat and a great number of sightings of dolphins and whales.

Arrival of Felix Karrer, camera-man of Swiss TV, who we immediately took to sea with us.

Thursday, 24th and 25th of April:
Because of the Levante, the cheerful group heard lectures from Jörn and Katharina and they took part in the excursions in the sand dunes of Bolonia and at low tide also to the rocky coast of Tarifa.

Felix Karrer with the camera and Ruth Zweifel (Journalist and Photograph) accompanied the group.

Felix Karrer filmed for Swiss Television´s Spezial “Fernweh” which is going to be broadcasted in July and August.
It’s about the Mediterranean Sea and the programme starts with the Strait of Gibraltar. Katharina and the Team were interviewed.
We´ll be curious to watch it!

Foto: Rolf Zürcher

(’Fernweh’ is most probably going to be broadcasted on the July 8th, 20:50h)

Saturday, the 26th of April:
Farewell to Felix Karrer and Rösli’s group

Rösli will come back to Tarifa again in the first week of May 2009 with her 5-star bus from Horgen (Switzerland).
Information: Tel. 0041 79 820 50 50
www.doenni-roesli-carreisen.ch
We are already looking forward to another cheerful group!

Text: Nina / firmm

Last summer a major fin whale stranded in the bay of Bolonia. The people living there and especially the children were very emotional about that. Katharina Hehenberger, mother of one of these children and former secretary of firmm, talked to the administration of the Public school “Campiña de Tarifa” and thereby made it possible that our marine biologist Jörn Selling was invited to present the marine mammals living in their environment to the children.

On the first day 31 attentive children listened in Tahivilla to the lecture about the whales and the dolphins in the Strait of Gibraltar. On the second day there were even 63 children, all between 6 and 15 years old. The day started with the small children and ended with the juveniles.
All of them showed lively interest in the marine mammals and had a lot of questions. Moreover, they had the need to tell all their own experiences and knowledge to our marine biologist Jörn to learn even more about the animals.
The atmosphere was relaxed and funny, which was absolutely in our sense, because we believe that only by means of enthusiasm for the animals the children may be sensitized. All that according to
the motto of firmm: Only what I know and love, I am willing to protect.

We want to express our special thanks to Director Manuel Vaquero who is very involved in the exchange with local organizations and made it possible that firmm was invited into the public schools. We also express our high appreciation to the parents of the children who - by supporting such projects - prove their openness and willingness to support their children’s interest in our environment and its creatures.
All in all these 2 days have been very successful and firmm has reached once more its aim of sensitization.

Text: Nadja von Wegen and Diana Steffens

On Saturday morning the first annual two day meeting of all regional environmental organizations of the Strait of Gibraltar took place in the ornithological station of Tarifa. This meeting aimed to sensitize the population of the Strait of Gibraltar, to exchange ideas and to present the activities of the various organizations.

In spite of the strong Levante that was blowing in Tarifa that Saturday morning, everyone was in a relaxed and happy mood. In addition to good music and Spanish food there were interesting discussions between the organizers and the visitors.

Half-hour lectures were held by all participating organizations that pointed out the importance of a continued support of the projects and the necessity to sensitize the population to the endangered nature in the area of Tarifa.
The presentation of our marine biologist Jörn produced a lot of interest to young and old and met with approval.

In the evening of this first and very informative day we had an evening program with a fine barbecue, open-air cinema and good live music. We celebrated the whole night.

The members who attended the meeting among others were:
Asociación de Amigos de la Jada, Agaden, Ecologistas en Acción San Fernando, Verdemar, Asociación Cuartón Parque, Tarifa Viva, Al_Nafida, Garum, Plataform de Cuidadanos Rodeados por las Fábricas, Nerita, Agedpa, Colectivo Ornitológico Cigüeña Negra, Fundación Migres, Turmares, Whale Watch, firmm.

The meeting was organized by the Ornithological Association Cigüeña Negra (COCN), Nerita (Gaditan Association of Marine Science of the Strait of Gibraltar) and the municipal council of Tarifa.
COCN is an association that concentrates on the research, the protection and the conservation and especially cares for the birds of the region of Campo de Gibraltar. These aims are achieved by the help of a large number of volunteers and members of the COCN. Nerita is an organization that rescues stranded and injured marine mammals and collects data for indexing.

All in all we are looking favorably upon this informative weekend. Thus a first step was done and we are looking forward to the following moves.

Nadja, Ines, Diana, Manuela

Ines (Volunteer firmm )

The sun is shining and the sea is quite calm. There is a lot of excitement - what animals are we going to see today ? I am looking forward to go out with the boat again after some windy days.
The boat is going towards Morocco. After only a short time, Katharina sights the blow of a Sperm Whale. Everybody is very excited and we can already see the back of the whale. It seems to be a mature, 18 m long Sperm Whale. Far away you can see a second blow. The Sperm Whale in front of us dives and we can see his huge fluke. Wow ! The second Sperm Whale we observe moves very slowly and tanks some oxygen before he dives again. Unbelievable … what a sigthing.
Not long and we can see some curious Bottlenose Dolphins. They join us and observe us as interested as we observe them. The people are very silent …
Suddenly the show begins: Tailslapping and spyhopping, wow ! We are very happy about our small and big playful guests. Three teenager dolphins compete with each other and spray water on the people. Suddenly Katharina cries out: “Lolly”. Lolly, a well known Bottlenose female, shows herself next to the boat and accompanies us for a while. Lolli is remembered well because of her fungal infection on her dorsal fin. Every year she comes again.
The Bottlenose Dolphins lead us to a group of slowly moving school of Pilot Whales. Within the school there are two Pilot Whales Calves. They do not come close to the boat, it seems that they want to stay alone.
It was a wonderful trip with lots of beautiful experiences and sightings!