We Bid Farewell for 5 Months!

Text: Katharina Heyer
Photos: firmm

We say goodbye:

to our beloved Pilot whales: Franzfin, Zack-Zack, Puzzle and Curro :

Franzfin

Zackzack

Puzzle

Curro

and to all other Pilot whale families . After 5 months the little ones will be a lot bigger.

We say farewell to the large schools of striped dolphin

and the small groups of common dolphin....

We ask ourselves whether or not the high-spirited bottle-nosed dolphin teenagers will still be as playful? They managed to increase their artful antics this year, and all this in front of our new " firmm spirit" boat.

Will the three sperm whales which we observed the whole summer still be in the Strait of Gibraltar when we return?

.

We already miss the exciting trips to the Orcas which now and then passed so closely to our boat.

We like to think back on the many finnwhales we were priviledged to observe, the unforgettable images in light and sunshine we were able to capture, causing even our Marineo Diego to get out his camera.

photo: Diego Díaz Piñero

photo: Diego Díaz Piñero

The time has come to bring our boats to safety. They will spend the winter on land in Barbate and go through thorough inspection. The autumn storms have begun and the outings must often be cancelled.

During one recent storm the ferry to Tanger didn´t even set sail! Two small boats sank in Tarifa´s harbor.

and a large tanker capsized near Gibraltar at Punto Europa. Even"firmm spirit" showed damage. The rear anchorage was bent like a straw by the storm, leaving it unusuable.

photo: Diego Díaz Piñero

We´ll miss the breathlessly beautiful sunsets which we experienced during our evening trips.

Miscelleneous items :

A review of the Orcas season by our biologist Jörg Selling you can read in the coming Newsletter 10 which will be sent out in November or will appear in www.firmm.org to download.

We invite everyone to our 11th firmm meeting on the 24th of January 2009 in Aarau/Switzerland. The invitation can be downloaded from our homepage. Homepage herunterladen.

You will find us represented in the following vacation fairs in Switzerland:
Bern : 15.01 - 18.01. 2009
Zürich FESPO: 29.01. - 01.02. 2009
St. Gallen : 06.02. - 08.02. 2009
Basel: 13.02. - 15.02. 2009

We wish you all the best in the New Year and look forward to having many volunteers in 2009!

The firmm ® Team from Tarifa