Text: Katharina Heyer / firmm

I have never seen a marine mammal with such a strange “ulcer”. First it made me think of “pocks” like we know them from the humpback whales and the grey whales. However, from the photos we understand that it is something more or less soft, like a tumor. I have sent the photos to Kimberly Grobholz who is the owner of a practice in Munich for natural therapy of animals. She assumes that this phenomenon is due to extreme environment pollution. She knows this problem from the marine fauna in general.

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: Manuela Ablasser (firmm volunteer)

05.05.2008

At noon our colleague Slava returned to our office and informed us that he had been taking pictures of a stranded dolphin in Las Palomas islands. When Katharina saw the photos, she immediately called C.R.E.M.A. (Centro de Recuperacion de Especies Marinas de Andalucia) to inform them of the news.
C.R.E.M.A. is administered by “Aula del Mar” in Malaga, founded in 1994 and linked to the network CREA (Centro de Recuperacion de Especies Amenazadas or Center for Recovery of Threatened Species), under the authority of the “Consejeria de Medio Ambiente de la Junta de Andalucia” (Environmental Consul of Andalucia). CREMA is the first point of contact for stranding alerts in the coast of Andalucia.

Picture: stranded dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) in Las Palomas island beach

I immediately took off with Christine to examine the animal, take measurements and photographs.
It was a female 310 cm. long. Females can be identified by the creases in the mammary glands or by measuring the distance from the genital opening to the anal opening. This distance is shorter in females. After taking the pictures - not an easy task thanks to the wind and the tide - an employee of EGMASA (Empresa de Destion Medioambiental) arrived to take pictures as well. He informed C.R.E.M.A. of the status of the dolphin and decided that the animal was in good enough condition to perform an autopsy. He mentioned that later in the afternoon a veterinarian could come to examine the bottlenose dolphin.
A few hours later I returned to the island to wait for the vet. When he arrived, I asked if I could assist and he agreed. Despite the increasing Levante winds, the veterinarian measured the dolphin once more while I took pictures of the animal and its internal organs during the autopsy.
The dolphin appeared malnourished and her skin had deteriorated after being stranded in the swell and rocks. It was likely to have been an older dolphin since its teeth were worn down and many were missing. After the external examination, we opened the thorax to inspect the internal organs. The lymph nodes were noticeably dilated and altered, and the liver and lungs looked unhealthy.
When we opened the stomach ,we noticed barbed wire and pieces of fishing nets.

Picture: stomach containing fishing nets

The veterinarian took tissue samples as well as excrement and blood samples in order to perform laboratory analysis of bacteria, viruses and parasites. Unfortunately we have yet to receive any lab results.

It was a very interesting experience to be able to assist in the autopsy and to hear the veterinarian’s comments about the organs of the animal, despite the fact that I didn’t know many of the Spanish terms that were used. But thanks to Latin, we were able to understand each other.

(Jose Stirling Crevoisier) veterinarian

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.