Unforgettable moments

Text: Brigitte, photos: firmm

I don't think I've ever seen the firmm team as excited as on 5 July at 15.30, when the boat returned from the second trip of the day.

I had just arrived at the harbour when Edeltraud (she works already a long time for firmm and gives most of the German information talks) came storming into the office, completely excited and with a big grin on her face, telling me all about the tour. Shortly afterwards, Katharina came in with the words: You wouldn't believe what a great trip that was. It's worth a blog.’ Only a short time later, I heard from our volunteer Leonie: ‘That was soooo great. I'm so happy.’

But let's start from the beginning and recap the trip.

In the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar, the first animal we came across was a sperm whale. We had just positioned our boat in such a way that we had a good view of it when our mechanic David couldn't believe his eyes.

He had spotted the orcas on the other side of the boat, which he immediately announced loudly to the rest of the crew. We were now in a bit of a quandary. Should we go straight to the orcas? However, we decided to wait until the sperm whale dived. But it took its time. This was probably the first time that we couldn't wait for the giant to finally dive down. David didn't take his eyes off the orcas the whole time. As soon as the whale had disappeared and the guests on board had taken their photos of the descending tail fluke, we set off in the direction of the orcas. All the passengers were delighted, as nobody had expected this on a two-hour trip.

The animals were not with the fishermen, where we often meet them in the summertime, but rather in the direction of Algeciras, i.e. east of Tarifa. However, it was also not the usual group of Matriarchin and Camorro. There were around 13 animals, including a large male, recognisable by its high, straight dorsal fin. There was also a slightly younger male. The other orcas were females of various sizes with juveniles, one of which was still quite small, about a year old. They were not feeding or hunting, but swimming leisurely from the Mediterranean towards the Atlantic, in the direction of Barbate.
The group was not unknown to us, we had already seen them last year. And it was the same male that had surprised David in spring in his small fishing boat near the Almadraba of Barbate.

We accompanied the animals for a long time. We were lucky enough to spend almost an hour with these beautiful dolphins, who also came curiously to the boat. At some point, however, it was time to make our way back. This time it was our sailor Luis who cried out. He had spotted two fin whales swimming along the Spanish coast towards the Atlantic. As they were travelling very slowly, we quickly caught up with them and had some time to watch them.

Now you can understand the excitement of the firmm employees who came from the boat after the trip. Sperm whales, orcas and fin whales on one trip. That doesn't happen very often.

Even Katharina thought it was one of the best trips in firmms 26-year history. We are delighted for everyone who had the chance to be part of it.