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.

Text and photos: Katharina Heyer, firmm

We saw Lolly the first time 4 years ago, in April 2004. She was sighted and remembered because of a fungal infection on her dorsal fin which was diagnosed by Prof. David Senn. Lolly is a Bottlenose female, mother of a little calf which is also showing a white fungal infection. The fungal infection on the fin of Lolly did not grow much, but the one on Lolly’s back got worse during the last 4 years.

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