Franz Feldmann, Ex-Volunteer, Photographer

Once in Tarifa - forever whale watching! After being a volunteer here two years ago, I was drawn again to the Strait of Gibraltar for three days. An experience I will never forget! During our last excursion (there were four altogether) there was nothing to watch for a long time - but then… Two blows - close together! Two sperm whales…who stayed in the same spot until we reached them with our boat! Keeping a respectful distance we watched their behaviour until they decided to dive underwater simultaneously. A ballet in the Strait of Gibraltar! Incredibly impressive!

Christine / firmm

Those of you who have had the pleasure of vacationing in Tarifa have certainly met “Levante”. He is omnipresent and responsible for many things — when we can’t take the boats out to sea, or even when locals are a bit confused or distracted. But who is this “Levante”?
The Levante is a very strong wind which forms in the Mediterranean sea between Spain and the North African coast. It originates in the East and blows West, towards the Atlantic. It is surrounded by chains of mountains around the Strait of Gibraltar, the Atlas mountains on the African coast and the Sierra Nevada on the Spanish coast. The Levante usually blows from June until August. His counterpart, the Poniente, is a lighter but colder wind which originates from the West. It blows east from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.
And how can we grasp all this?
The Levante originates in the East, where the sun rises (to rise in Spanish is “levantar” thus “levante”), on the contrary the Poniente comes from the West, where the sun sets (sets in Spanish is “poner”).
If one morning you wake up from a fun night and you don’t remember how you got home, you can blame the “Levante” which makes everyone lose their mind and memory…

Katharina Heyer / firmm

Soon after receiving the sad news about Curro’s injury, we made an interesting observation.
A few hours later, one of the biggest Pilot Whales observed in the Strait of Gibraltar approached the boat with his family - 2 juveniles and 2 females. The juveniles amused themselves at the bow, while the male swam under the boat — almost as if scratching his body under the ship. He turned around from one side to the other, came back several times very close to the side of the boat, so close that we could have touched him. While he rolled, he dashed with the fluke on the water, which caused an enormous splashing. It was a strange kind of spectacle - to see this very bulky and powerful animal, 8m long, next to our 10 m boat was quite impressive. Even our captain Sebastian and the mariñero Diego came out of their coach to see the giant Pilot Whale. These experienced sea men don’t witness something like this every day, although they spend so much time at the sea with the whales.
Everyone was impressed by this “touching” encounter. I couldn’t stop wondering if both incidents were somehow correlated and if so - what was this pilot whale trying to tell us?

Jörn Selling / firmm

On May 23rd we made a sad discovery. We sighted a large male Pilot Whale that had an incision across his ridge in front of the dorsal fin. The incision was 15cm deep and probably stopped just before the spine, the fringes (skin and adipose tissue) were still bloody red. The muscular tissue was covered by collagen fibres which show the first phase of the healing process. From the top of the ship I could see deep inside the wound where it was also bloody. The accident probably occurred between the 18th and the 21st of May. At this point it is questionable whether the animal will survive. I hope it will, so it could become a symbol for the whale watchers.

I point out the whale watchers because in my opinion they could be the ones to blame. The incision could have originated from a propeller and because of the size of the wound, presumably from a bigger ship. It is safe to assume the animal was probably resting under a ship with a stationary propeller and got injured when it was suddenly turned on.

The fishermen that cross the groups of whales when they are hunting for tuna are not likely suspects because they usually do not fish these waters until June. Furthermore they don’t stop, but tug the fishing lines with the hooks dragging behind. During the month of May there are only whale watchers and the usual cargo ships and ferries - no fishermen. It’s also the whale watchers who most frequently have their propellers turned off next to the whales. So they can’t be excluded. Moreover I have seen numerous whale watchers suddenly take off when they sighted a Sperm whale, without checking whether there were animals under the propeller. This happens most often with the big boats, where you can’t see the animals under the boat from the bridge.
We spotted “Curro” (that’s how we called him) again on the 24th of May and have never seen him again…

After an extensive search we found 200 Bottlenose Dolphins that moved westwards and took their time to enjoy themselves around our boat. What a show with Spyhopping and Tailslapping, giant jumps in the distance and in front of the boat as well - and all this with a unique sunset! However, the high point of the tour had not come yet: on our way back to the port, at the same level as Tarifa Trafico, only about 2 km from Tarifa: 2 giant blows of 2 mighty fin whales that were swimming slowly towards the Atlantic Ocean. Their water-jets were mighty, white like snow they were shining in the shimmering sunlight. All passengers on board, even the children that used to scream and cheer before, suddenly became awesomly quiet.
To see these giants peacefully in the sunset was an experience we will never forget.