Text: Jörn / firmm

We left the port and turned towards Tanger. However, just before we reached the position where we normally meet the pilot whales and the bottlenose dolphins, I saw the blow of a sperm whale from the corner of my eye. He was about one mile from our boat and dove after a short time. I thought that it was a shame that we didn’t notice him earlier which would have enabled us to watch him for a longer time, as we hadn’t seen a sperm whale for about a week. We continued driving and suddenly saw 3 pilot whales. Far and wide there was nothing else to see, but this turned out to be good. In addition, 9 sperm whales appeared. It looked like water-jets had been turned on close by. So we had to go from one to the other, depending on the distance, sometimes even having to hurry. Therefore we were glad that there were no other animals around. It is always a pity when we have to leave a group of bottlenose dolphins that are playing right in front of the boat. Sometimes it is not even possible to leave because the animals swim too close around the boat - unless one has no scruples and zooms away recklessly. Among the sperm whales there was also a juvenile. I don’t think that there were 10 different animals. It rather looked like some of them appeared several times. I think there were about 5 to 8 animals. Last year on our June 19th boat trip we had very similar sightings with 8 sperm whales in total. So this is a new record!

During our next trip we only saw one sperm whale, and since then no group like that again!

Text: Katharina Heyer

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it.
When I was walking to the castle today between 10.00 and 10.30 a.m. I had my field-glasses with me (unfortunately I´d forgotten my camera) to check the waves after the strong Levante, because the next trip after 4 days of wind would be taking place at 12:00. When I reached the lookout point I heard a loud detonation that totally frightened me. An old woman next to me cried out loud “”los moros”, the Moroccans are shooting!”
I couldn’t believe that, because the noise came from the cliff-lined coast on the Spanish side. And after that there was another explosion. This time I could see from which direction the projectiles were coming, and at the same time I saw 3 huge impacts outside in the Strait of Gibraltar with water-jets of an enormous altitude quite well with my field-glasses. In the front - not far away from the line of fire - there was a fishing boat going towards Tarifa harbor. Except for the one boat there were no others outside. A short time later I heard a 3rd and 4th deafening bang. I could see more and more impacts, and finally there were 5 huge water-jets, all of them in direction of the new Moroccan harbor “Tanger MED”, which is located in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. There the width of the Strait is just 14km and near the impacts we recently saw 3 Sperm Whales, as well as the schools of Pilot Whales with all their calves that we observed just 2-3 km away from the impacts. A concentration of the marine mammals that live here is located in an area of 3-4 km around the impacts. I got sick while thinking of the animals and how they probably got scared to death when, even on land, it was such a deafening noise. Furthermore, the coastal area has been declared now for a while as a nature reserve, about which we were very pleased.
How is it possible that the military can operate the manoeuvres here of all places, although everybody knows that it’s the habitat of many cetaceans?!
It’s just unbelievable how recklessly the military can act!!!

Photo: Aurelio Morales

Photo: Photomontage

Text: Katharina H. / firmm

On the day between two days of the usual winds, the Poniente (westerly) and Levante (east wind), we had fantastic weather with ideal conditions to go out for a trip.
And we really had wonderful sightings: It started with a family of Pilot Whales, which came up to the boat and entertained us with their games.

It seemed as if they liked to show us what Bottlenose Dolphins usually do -having fun- and amusing our guests on the Boat. They peeked out of the water and tried to splash the people, and stayed under the boat for a long time. They were very friendly; the mothers also approached and tried to teach their calves how to do proper spyhopping… It was fascinating to see their behaviour from such a short distance.

The Pilot Whales had our attention until a Sperm Whale appeared just 100 m away from the boat. He put his head unusually high out of the water with every blow, and I discovered a part of his body that looked like a big belly - it was a lateral bulge …

After that a second Sperm Whale breached just 500 m away from the other which suddenly disappeared. It was Quasimodo - a big and strong representative of his species, which we recognized by means of a kind of collar on his body.

The Bottlenose Dolphins joined us a short time after the Sperm Whales. Among the group we discovered Lolly with her calf close to her and her partner. They were swimming a long time in front of the boat and then followed us right next to the boat for a while. The water was crystal clear, so we could observe them under water as well.

It is always a pleasure to encounter the family of Pilot Whales with ZackZack, who is also always accompanied by her newborn calf. We saw ZackZack the first time in summer 2006, during the whole summer in 2007 and since April 2008 the first time with a calf.
The calf, which is very small, is always swimming very close to ZackZack and we could still see the stripes on his body that are caused by the contractions of the uterus during birth.
ZackZack got her name from Jörn at the same period when we saw a Pilot Whale named ZickZack in the Strait of Gibraltar who looked very similar.

We unfortunately couldn’t find ZickZack since the end of 2006, after we discovered her continuously during 2006.

The same family of Pilot Whales was also accompanied by a group of Bottlenose Dolphins which entertained us with very high jumps.

After these great sightings everybody left the boat satisfied. When the participants entered the boat, all the different families and groups were on their own and didn’t even speak the same language. But when they left it felt like a big and happy family!
The adventures with the whales and dolphins they had shared together seemed to unite them. This always fills me with joy and makes me grateful.

Text: Elisabeth Kubin, Volunteer at firmm

During today’s 17:00 h trip with our firmm boat we were able to experience the famous so-called “Vaciante” waves. We were accompanied by a team from the German Television Station MDR that was taking pictures of the whales and dolphins in the strait of Gibraltar as a part of a travel program with the leading character “Ilse Bähnert”.
The Vaciante causes waves that are known in physics under the name of Soliton waves. They do not just occur in solid bodies, but also in rivers, lakes, oceans and also rarely in the atmosphere (e.g.: the “Morning Glory” in Australia - s. photo).

Photo: Morning Glory in Australia, which is also a Soliton wave

Solitons are migrating waves that - once they have been activated - keep on moving constantly with the same wave height and interval. Thus these waves move over a long distance without changing their characteristics.
These waves were first discovered by John Scott Russell in a river. He observed that a wave packet (several waves), that was caused by a boat abruptly stopping didn’t subside as usual, but continued running upstream without changing its height, form or interval. He followed the waves upstream on the back of his horse. From that time on, his interest was awaken and he started researching about these waves he called “waves of transition”.
There are different ways which such waves might be produced. In the Strait of Gibraltar this happens mainly by the change of high tide to low tide (thus the name). The waves are activated by a higher sill on the Atlantic coast of the Strait and by the narrowness of the Strait. The shallowest area is situated on the Atlantic and Moroccan side and is called Camarinal Sill. The Strait is only 290 m deep at that point.

Figure: topographical map of the Strait of Gibraltar, where you can see the shallowest point, Camarinal Sill.
Source: http://www.ifm.uni-hamburg.de/ers-sar/Sdata/oceanic/intwaves/gibraltar/intro/

The second reason of the formation of such a wave packet is the fact, that there are two main currents in the Strait of Gibraltar: a salted one in high depth, that flows from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and another one less salty in the upper 100 - 200 meters, that flows from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. This situation results in a Halocline, a salinity gradient (density layer) that separates the salty layer from the less salty one. The depth of the halocline depends on the underground, the currents and the tides.

At the turn of the tides there happens a depression of the density layer. This depression is especially important at the lower sills in the beginning of the Strait of Gibraltar. After the change of the tidal current an intern tidal wave is activated in about 100 m depth. This wave is the beginning of a wave packet of intern Solitons that migrate far into the Mediterranean Sea.

Figure: edited satellite photo of the strait of Gibraltar. Tidal wave activated at Camarinal Sill which leads to solitons that migrate far into the Mediterranean Sea. Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16581]

These waves may be recognized on the surface as a relatively intense swell. They may also be seen from the outer-space, as in general there is a high concentration of biological films.

As I am very interested in these waves, it was an exciting experience to see these solitons in reality.