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.

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.