Eindrücke von André Fromke

Text and photos: André Fromke, translated from German into English by firmm-team

I participated in the firmm observation course from August 17th until August 21st and I have had the best week of my life.

The course started for me already one day earlier than planned, on Sunday morning, because the wind was supposed to get stronger by midweek and then we would not be able to do any boat tours.

We saw dolphins and whales on every observation trip we made. Only once we were not able to find the orcas. However, we saw a very big school of dolphins instead. It looked highly impressive as the approx. 250 dolphins were swimming towards our boat. During one trip, the orcas were really playful. They jumped out of the water or turned on their backs and slapped with their tail fin on the water surface. The orcas came also really close to the boat, dived under the boat and came up again on the other side to draw breath.

When I planned this holiday, it was very important for me that certain criteria are met when I go on a whale watching trip. First and foremost, I would not participate in whale watching in countries where whaling is still conducted, e.g. Norway, Finland or Iceland. Secondly, it was important to me that the animals are not disturbed and that they are treated respectfully. Therefore I chose the foundation firmm.

I was highly impressed how respectful the team of the foundation firmm is approaching the animals. The animals themselves decide how close they want to come to the boat. It almost seems that the animals learned that the boats are not dangerous for them. One day a mother pilot whale with her about 2-day-old calf came really close to the boat. The little baby curiously stuck his head out of the water and looked at the boat.

The booking and the subsequent communication didn’t cause any problems. While I was on my way to the airport they called me and informed me that the observation course would start one day earlier. As arranged I was picked up at Malaga Airport and driven to Tarifa, where the landlord of my holiday apartment already waited for me. I had booked the apartment through the organisation as well. The transfer back to Malaga also went smoothly.

At this point I would like to say thank you once again to the foundation firmm for this brilliant week. You do a great job by giving the guests, joining you on the boat trips, a better understanding of these wonderful animals.