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!

Nadine Cremer (Volunteer firmm)

On my first trip with firmm I saw three different marine mammals in the Strait of Gibraltar. The day started with sunshine and a good mood on board. Every one was very excited to see the animals in the wild. First we saw a school of Pilot Whales with two calves, soon joined by the big Bottlenose Dolphins. We were very lucky to see them jumping, spyhopping and tailslapping. It felt very good to see their stunts in freedom, not in a delfinarium where the animals are living under very bad conditions.
I will never forget this feeling of seeing the dolphins really wild and free.
On our way back some Striped Dolphins joined us, too.
I think I am very lucky that I can do something for these wonderful animals with my work here with firmm.