This week will be held at Madryn, Argentina, an International Seminar on Responsible Whale Watching. The International Whaling Commission will be attending this seminar as well as representatives from different countries. “This is a great opportunity to reach agreements between social actors who have different points of view about this matter”, said the Argentinean expert in tourism, Antonio Torrejón.

After the procedures made by the regional government of Chubut at the Argentinean Foreign Office, the province obtained the permission to be the venue of this relevant event that will take place between the 2^nd and the 5^th of November, which has been organized by the International Whaling Commission and sponsored by the regional and national government as well as the government of the United States and Australia and the world society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

Antonio Torrejón will be representing the Argentinean Minister of Tourism, Mr. Enrique Meyer during the seminar, and he has commented that “this is a good opportunity not only to analyze the inclusion of whales in the modern world, but to reach agreements between countries that have different points of views about this matter. Chubut has been a pioneer in the development of sustainable whale watching activities in South America” added the councillor.

The objective of this seminar is to elaborate a five-year whale watching plan that will be submitted to the International Whaling Commission during their next annual meeting. The approval of this plan will allow the establishment of international policies to regulate whale watching activities.

http://www.lu17.com/a/2010/10/29/7181ecd8-e3a0-11df-9638-000000000000/comienza_el_taller_internacional_de_avist_1288387456

A total of twenty five guides have registered in the specialization course on whale watching organized by Tenerife Tourism Corporation completing all the available places as was stated by the vice president of the Council of Tenerife and tourism councillor, José Manuel Bermúdez on a press release. The councillor pointed out that the main objective of this training activity is to “improve the attention and service provided to over 700,000 tourists who enjoy this activity each year in Tenerife.     

The course will take place at the Costa Adeje Tourism Development Centre and will consist of 35 teaching hours, starting next Thursday and ending the 18^th of November. During the training activity the attendees will receive the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical tools to develop ecotourism in the marine environment focused on the direct observation of cetaceans in the wild.

The training will focus on the key elements of the Canary marine environment, the basic characteristics of cetaceans and the differences between whales and dolphins. The course will also address the regulatory aspects of this activity, the importance of the tourist as the recipient of the same, customers with special needs, activities, the abilities of a guide and group management techniques, among other issues.

This training activity complements other initiatives developed by Tenerife Tourism Corporation to boost whale watching as tourist product including the installation of information and interpretive panels at marinas and walking areas of the municipalities in which the activity is carried out, or the establishment of a Quality Charter for companies that offer this service.

Among the cetaceans that live in South Tenerife there is an estimated permanent population of about 500 specimens of pilot whales. Bottlenose dolphins also reside in the waters of the southwest region of Tenerife, where they can be seen in groups of 20 individuals.

All these initiatives are part of the revitalisation plan for the tourism product ‘Tenerife Welcome’, a financial instrument that includes the participation of the Council of Tenerife, the Ministry of Tourism, the Government of the Canary Islands and the Spanish Ministry of Tourism with the aim of creating new tourist products and boost the existing ones.

http://www.europapress.es/islas-canarias/noticia-total-25-guias-inscriben-curso-especializacion-avistamiento-cetaceos-tenerife-20101102150146.html

The new ferry route between Tarife and the new port of Tangiers in Morocco, threatens the life of the cetaceans of the Strait of Gibraltar.

The new itinerary, which is being processed and will be approved soon, crosses the “area that has the greatest density of cetaceans” in the Strait of Gibraltar, as stated by the Merchant Marine department within the Spanish Ministry of Development in a letter sent to Greenpeace, which admits that “we consider that the route is not necessary, but he can not prohibit it”.

As consequence, the Merchant Marine Department requests the ferries to reduce their speed to 13 knots in the cetaceans area (these ships can exceed 40 knots) and to have observers onboard to avoid collisions.

The Strait of Gibraltar is the area of the Mediterranean Sea with more cetaceans. Pilot whales, killer wahles, bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins and other cetaceans usually swim in these waters which are one of the main marine routes worldwide.

The coexistence between cetaceans and large ships was already complicated, but an arrangement was achieved in 2007 when the Spanish government gave “a notice to mariners” to reduce the speed of the vessels in the area in front of Tangier where there usually gather about 25 sperm whales.

This isolated area won’t be enough in short because Morocco has opened its huge port of Tanger-Med and wants all the ferries from Spain to put in there, according to the Port Authority of Algeciras, which also manages the Port of Tarifa.

Except from the Tarifa ones, all the ferries that travel to Tangier already put in at the new port. Morocco has built a huge complex to compete with Algeciras as a container port and wants to leave the old facilities of Tangier for tourists and fishing cruises.

Greenpeace criticizes the new route. “There is an exclusion zone for cetaceans that is already breached by one maritime route and now there will be two of them. These ferries go very fast and will not slow down”, said Pilar Marcos, head of the coasts campaign for the environmental organization.

The Merchant Marine department replied to the request for information from Greenpeace saying that they are not responsible for the new route. On that note, the department explains that they want to meet with the shippers to encourage them to declare themselves “friends of cetaceans” and that they will propose measures such as carrying “sensors to avoid collisions with whales” and “slow down speed to 13 knots.”

The Merchant Marine department also states that they have asked the port not to grant new permits for docking without such limitations.

Marcos criticizes the expansion of the port of Tarifa, which detractors have called “the mega port”. The facility is awaiting the environmental impact report which should determine its impact on cetaceans.

“They are planning a new route without waiting for the environmental impact report for the expansion of the port. Spain can not say that they have nothing to say with this respect”, said Marcos.

The expert on the cetaceans’ populations in the Strait of Gibraltar, Renaud de Stephanis, also shoed his concern about the possible effect of this new route on sperm whales.

The studies conducted by the port authorities admit that the observers, the speed reduction and a website to follow the situation of the sperm whales could reduce whales’ mortality.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/ruta/Tarifa/nuevo/puerto/Tanger/amenaza/cachalotes/elpepusoc/20101026elpepisoc_7/Tes

The Galician team part of the coordinating committee for the Study of Marine Mammals (CEMMA) spent more than 40,000 hours in the submarine canyon of Avilés with two main objectives: to analyze its state of preservation and to study the whales and birds that live in the trench, one of the most extraordinary ecosystems in the Cantabrian Sea located 7 miles from the coast, where it is believed that inhabits the mythical “Kraken” or giant squid that made famous the novel by Jules Verne “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”.

The Cemma team did not find the sea monster, but they found numerous remains of garbage about eight miles away from the entrance of the estuary, where the canyon reaches depths of 4,000 meters.
Most of the wastes observed by investigators were milk packs, sprays and bottles. They also found fluorescent lamps and fishing gears. “We saw birds with plastic pieces in their beaks, a young gannet with a longline hook and two common terns and black foot tern landed on top of a fishing gear that was floating in the sea where they can get caught and die”, said Alfredo López, president of the Galician Coordinating Committee for the Study of Marine Mammals (CEMMA).

Alfredo López added that, “the conservation value of this area is enormous and it is necessary to prevent the destruction of the sea bottoms by unsustainable fishing practices in an area where there is no regulation or limitations.”
The main goal of the study of animals’ populations conducted last year in the Avilés canyon was to catalogue the species of cetaceans and seabirds to contribute with scientific results, to the proposal for the designation of this canyon as marine protected area under the category of underwater mountain.
The Cemma team watched nine cetaceans during the more than 503,000 miles long expedition. They observed species such as bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales, finback whales and other unidentified dolphins. They also found six ‘Portuguese Man o’ War’ jellyfish (Physalia physalis), eleven ocean sunfish and a shark.
The scientific expedition ended last 2^nd of October. It was the third expedition after the two previous ones that the group performed in 2006 and 2007 to collect biological information from the Avilés canyon. The intention of the Galician organization is to repeat the study next year to confirm the distribution of species and study their seasonal variations.

The organization is also devoted to analyze the interaction between the productive sector and cetaceans to present proposals for the conservation of the species in the Avilés Canyon, which is a seismically active submerged trench that has earthquakes which just reach the level 3 in the Richter scale, making them virtually undetectable, according to various studies performed in the area.
The scientific studies conducted in the Avilés canyon are framed in the project “Life Indemares” which purpose is to contribute to the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Spanish seas by identifying areas of value to the Natura 2000 network.

The actions programmed in the project will continue until December 2013. The project has a budget of 15.4 million Euros which is financed fifty percent by the European Commission.
The project counts with the support of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the National Research Council, Alnitak, Cemma, Oceana, the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Islands, Seo / BirdLife and WWF Spain.
The Galician coordinating committee team who participated in the last campaign in the Avilés canyon was formed by eight marine biologists under the supervision of Angela Llavona Vallina, head of the maritime research campaigns in the coastal waters of Cemma.

They also counted with the participation of an ornithologist expert from the SEO, two acoustic experts who registered with sound equipments the presence of cetaceans, a specialist in audiovisual recordings and whale watching technicians.

http://www.lne.es/aviles/2010/10/18/biologos-alertan-acumulacion-basura-artes-pesca-canon-aviles/981805.html

Tenerife Tourism Corporation has organized a specialization course addressed to whale watching guides of the island with the aim of improving the customer service provided to more than 700,000 tourists who enjoy this activity each year in the island.

El consejero insular de Turismo y máximo responsable de Turismo de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, ha destacado que con esta actividad “ponemos en marcha una acción más con el objetivo de mejorar el producto turístico de observación de cetáceos, del que Tenerife es un destino privilegiado, además de mejorar la calidad del servicio que se ofrece a nuestros turistas”.The island’s tourism councillor and head of Tenerife Tourism Corporation, José Manuel Bermúdez, stressed that this activity “is intended to boost the tourism product of whale watching because Tenerife is a privileged destination for this activity and it is our duty to improve the quality of the service offered to our tourists”.

El curso se desarrollará del 4 al 18 de noviembre, constará de 35 horas lectivas y en él se dotará a los asistentes de los conocimientos teóricos y herramientas prácticas necesarias para desarrollar productos de ecoturismo en el medio marino especialmente vinculados a la observación directa de cetáceos en libertad.The course will be held from the 4^th to 18^th of November, and it will consist on 35 hours of class to give the participants the necessary knowledge and practical tools to develop ecotourism in the marine environment particularly related to the direct observation of cetaceans in freedom.

La formación versará sobre los elementos fundamentales de la oceanografía canaria, las características básicas de los cetáceos o las diferencias entre ballenas y delfines.The training will focus on the fundamentals of the Canary Islands oceanography, the basic characteristics of cetaceans, and the differences between whales and dolphins. Tratará también los aspectos normativos de esta actividad, la importancia del turista como destinatario de la misma o las técnicas de manejo de grupos, entre otros muchos. The course will also include the regulatory aspects of this activity, the importance of the tourist as the activity target group, and group management techniques, among many others.

Junto a esta iniciativa, la instalación de paneles informativos e interpretativos en los puertos deportivos y zonas de paseo de los municipios en los que se desarrolla la actividad, así como la implantación de una Carta de Calidad, son otras de las acciones puestas en marcha por Turismo de Tenerife para la potenciación de este producto turístico.This initiative is complemented by the installation of information boards at marinas and walking areas of the municipalities in which the activity occurs and the implementation of a quality charter among the companies that provide whale watching trips as a way to promote this tourism product.

Entre los cetáceos que habitan en el sur de Tenerife se encuentra una población estable estimada de unos 500 ejemplares de calderones tropicales.Among the cetaceans that live in the south of Tenerife, there is an estimated permanent population of about 500 specimens of pilot whales. El delfín mular vive igualmente de forma permanente en las aguas del sudoeste tinerfeño, donde se los puede contemplar hasta en grupos de 20. Bottlenose dolphins also live permanently in the waters of southwest Tenerife, where they can be watched in groups of 20.

The above initiatives are part of the revitalizing plan for the tourism product ‘Tenerife Acoje’, a financial instrument involving the Council of Tenerife, Ministry of Tourism within the Canary Islands Government, and the Spanish Ministry of Tourism with the intention to create new tourism products and boot the current ones.

http://www.finanzas.com/noticias/economia/2010-10-19/365225_700000-turistas-disfrutan-tenerife-avistamiento.html

The name of the mother of the first killer whale born in captivity in Spain is Kohana, an 8 years old killer whale that has given birth to a 150 kilograms and almost 2 metres long male offspring after 4 hours of labour.

The birth occurred during the night under the close supervision of the Loro Parque biologists and vets, as well as group of specialists from the United States.

A communiqué from Loro Parque states that few moments after its birth, the baby orca swam to the surface to take breath for the first time. Unfortunately, the mother and the baby haven’t established a good connection yet, which could be explained because Kohana is a first time mom.

To ensure the survival of the baby killer whale, the specialists from the zoo decided to take part in the looking after of the offspring to help the mother in the nursing of the newborn at the medical swimming pool of the aquarium.

The director of Loro Parque Foundation and doctor in marine science, Javier Almunia, said that the staff of Loro Parque is proud of this new birth because it is a proof of the animals’ welfare the zoo works hard to maintain.

The doctor added that there is little experience in human rising of killer whales and there are many challenges that the biologists and vets will have to overcome in order to assure the proper growing of this new specimen.

Vets and zookeepers supervise carefully the progress of the baby killer whale because the first weeks are crucial in the life of these cetaceans due to they have a basic immune system that has to be reinforced.

This is the first birth in the installations of the OrcaOcean after its opening in 2006. In this aquarium live four killer whale specimens brought to Tenerife from the United States, which are part of the Sea World breeding program.

For the experts, this is an exceptional opportunity to learn and have more scientific information about the rising of a newborn killer whale that will help in the looking after of other cetacean species.

http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=551981

A preliminary study has showed that when two different dolphin species meet, they try to use a common language to communicate to each other. The bottlenose dolphins and Guiana dolphins are distant related species, but they frequently meet in the waters of Costa Rica.

Both species emit unique sounds, but when they get together, they change the way in which they communicate using a different frequency. This discovery was published in the Ethology magazine setting out the theory that dolphins can communicate with other dolphin species.

It is not clear yet what happens between dolphins, but at first sight both species change the tone of their sounds not only to communicate with their pairs but to communicate with other species.

The biologist Laura May-Collado from the University of Puerto Rico made this discovery when she was studying dolphins at the natural reserve of Gandoca-Manzanillo, located in the southern coast of Costa Rica.

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) measure up to 3.5 metres long and they have a large dorsal fin. On the other hand, Guiana dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) are smaller cetaceans which measure an average of 2.1 metres long and have a smaller dorsal fin and a long nose.

When bottlenose dolphins swim together they emit long modulated low frequency sounds. On the contrary, Guiana dolphins usually use high frequency sounds to communicate with their pairs, and these sounds have their own structure.

Both species usually swim in separated groups and the interaction with other dolphin species is often conflictive. Bottlenose dolphins usually have a hostile behaviour with the smaller Guiana dolphins.

Doctor May-Collado discovered that when these species meet in the ocean, they emit special types of sounds. Both species change the frequency of their sounds and emit new sounds in an intermediate frequency, that is, they communicate in a frequency that is attainable for both of them.

“I was surprised by the discovery, because I supposed that both species would emphasize their low and high frequencies”, said doctor May-Collado to the BBC. “However, the sounds we recorded during their meetings were more homogeneous. To discover that was exiting for me”, commented the biologist.

The researcher doesn’t know if both species are trying to communicate in a common frequency or if one species is trying to imitate the sounds of the other. The recording equipment only registers the sounds emitted by the whole group of dolphins and the sounds of each species can’t be distinguished. “This is a problem for us because we can’t study the content of their communication”, said the doctor.

However, the study shows that dolphins have the ability to change their sounds when they meet other species or when they want to be listened when there is a high acoustic contamination.

According to the BBC journalist Matt Walker, editor of environment news, the biologist from the University of Puerto Rico has said that they don’t know yet if both species are learning to communicate between each other, or if the Guiana dolphins emit different sounds because they feel threatened by the bottlenose dolphins. What is more, doctor May-Collado believes that Guiana dolphins could be trying to emit threatening messages in a frequency that bottlenose dolphins can understand in order to scare them away.

http://www.mardechile.cl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2376:delfines-de-distintas-especies-intentan-un-lenguaje-comun-&catid=81:noticias-cientcas&Itemid=68

The Oceanogràfic, located in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia is the largest aquarium in Europe and contains specimens of the main marine ecosystems in the world including dolphins.

The aquarium has got under way a pilot program for autistic children to study the effect of dolphin assisted therapy on the improvement their quality of life. The benefits of dolphin therapy have been studied since 1950 and in the 80s it became popular as alternative therapy for patients suffering from neurology diseases.

This project is sponsored by the Ministry of Welfare from Valencia, the Catholic University of Valencia and the City of Arts and Sciences. Fernando Mulas, director of the Pediatric Neurology Institute in Valencia (INVANEP) said to RTVE.es that the project is intended to “demonstrate that dolphin therapy has a positive effect in autistic children”.

“Nowadays, there is little scientific evidence about the effects of dolphin therapy in autistic children. We want to obtain scientific data about the effect of dolphins on people with neurology diseases”, commented Mulas.

Animal therapies have been carried out for decades using horses, donkeys, and sea lions among others, but this project will be specially focused in dolphins. “Dolphins are joyful and social animals which emit sounds that are attractive for autistic children who have problems to interact with other human beings”, said the director of the institute.

The therapy sessions will be conducted five times a day for a three-week period. Each child will be accompanied by the trainer of the animal, a therapist, a physiotherapist and two external observers (a neuropsychologist and a speech therapist). Each session will last 50 minutes, 10 of them inside the water. During each session doctors and scientists will record different parameters to evaluate the evolution of each child before and after the therapy. The study will continue three moths after the ending of the dolphin therapy to evaluate the residual effects of the experience.

Researchers are convinced of the positive effects of dolphin therapy, but they want to have proofs of that before using this therapy on children suffering from brain paralysis and attention deficit disorders.

http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20101011/poder-terapeutico-delfines/360098.shtml

The Cabrera archipelago is a group of islets located in the Balearic Islands declared national park by the Spanish government in 1991. Some days ago the Spanish Ministry of the Environment announced the sighting of a humpback whale in the waters of this archipelago, which is an exceptional event in the Mediterranean Sea and especially in the coasts of the Balearic Islands.

Last 24^th of September at 7 a.m. a humpback whale was seen 12 miles away from the coast of the Cabrera archipelago. The crew of the sail boat “Antojo” commanded by Vicente Arroyo saw a huge cetacean in the sea. The members of the crew took some photographs and recorded for some minutes the large whale. The material was donated to the Cabrera National Park to be studied by the park guard Patxi Guardiola, who confirmed that the specimen was a humpback whale.

However, due to the low quality of the images, the scientists of the park sent the material to the doctor Alex Aguilar, professor of the University of Barcelona and to the doctor Manuel Gazo, director of Submón, an organization devoted to the conservation and research on sea life. Both experts confirmed the species of the whale.

Surprisingly, 2010 has been an exceptional year for humpback whale watching. It has been recorded four sightings of these cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea in September: one in Italy, another in Torredembarra in Barcelona, a third one in Cabreara and a last one in the coast of Alicante where two specimens of humpback whales were watched.

Scientists don’t know if the sightings belong to the same whale, but they noticed that each time the cetaceans where swimming heading south to the Strait of Gibraltar, which   connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. Experts believe that the recovery in the population of humpback whales in the North Atlantic due to the protection measures taken by several countries could be the reason for these whales to be seen more frequently in the Mediterranean Sea.

http://www.libertadbalear.com/?p=232890

The Council of Tenerife will place eight tourist information boards that will provide information about whale watching trips in the marinas where this activity is carried out and in areas of high tourist activity in the south of the island as a way to boost this tourist product and to inform about local marine life.

These eight tourist information boards that will provide information about whale watching trips will be placed in the marinas where this activity is carried out, and in the areas of high tourist traffic located in the south of the island as a way to promote this tourist activity and the marine richness the coastline of Tenerife has.

The vice-president of the Council of Tenerife and tourism councillor, José Manuel Bermúdez, has said that “we have been developing a series of projects in collaboration with representatives of the whale watching ships to promote this tourist activity”. The councillor added that “the continuous presence of cetaceans in the surrounding areas of Tenerife have turned this island in the second most popular place in the world for whale watching”.

Three informative boards will be placed in Puerto Colon, Los Cristianos and Los Gigantes. The other five informative boards will be placed in tourist towns including Adeje, Arona and Santiago del Teide where there are high numbers of tourists.

This initiative is part of the plan for the promotion of whale watching in the island. Other measures include the creation of a quality certification that assures a quality service and a quality customers’ service by the companies that provide these trips. Likewise, in the near future a Cetaceans Interpreting Centre will be created and a series of courses on cetaceans will be given to tourist guides.

Among the cetaceans that can be found in the waters surrounding Tenerife Island, there is a stable population of about 500 individual short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Another cetacean species that can be found in these waters are the bottlenose dolphins that are usually seen in groups of around 20 individuals.

The initiatives carried out by the Tenerife Tourism Corporation with this respect are part of the plan created to dynamize the tourist product called “Tenerife Acoge” which counts with the collaboration of the tourism department within the Canary Islands Government and the Spanish Ministry of Tourism.

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/829578/0/