La Vida Canaria

For the second half of my trip, the focus has moved from turtles to whales. I am working for the Atlantic Whale Foundation here in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa.

Tenerife with its year round warm temperatures attracts tons of european tourists, the main ones being from the UK. Where our research station is in Arona is just up the mountain from the most touristy parts of the island, Las Americas and Los Christianos. But these two towns are where we all the whale watching boats leave from so we are in one of the two every day. Tenerife is a volcanic island and the volcano, El Teide, is still active erupting every 100 years or so... with the last eruption being exactly a hundred years ago I hear. The Canary Islands are part of Spain so while Spanish is the main language, the touristy districts tend to speak just as much english as spanish. People are always really suprised to hear me respond to them in spanish because apparently its a rarity to find an English tourist who speaks spanish. There are very few American tourists so I am always a bit excited to explain to people that I'm American because people usually can't guess where I'm from. Although my south american accent often gives a good hint.

The research station is located in Arona as I said, which is about a 15 min drive up the mountain from the coast. We have a nice view of the towns below and the water. Its often cloudy and much cooler in Arona as opposed to at the beach.

A typical week day consists of waking up and being at the port by about 9:00am. We wait untill the tourists have boarded the whale watching boats and then get on either a 2hr, 3hr or 5hr trip. The foundation has worked out a deal thats been going on for years with these boats and we get to go on them for free and usually get a free meal out of the deal. During the trips there are usually about 2-4 whale sitings. There are pilot whales that live in the area between Tenerife and the next island over La Gomera, and there is pretty much a 100% chance of seeing them. You also have a decent chance of seeing bottlenose dolphins because there is also a population of those who live here too. Besides taht there are over twenty other species of whales and dolphins that migrate through the Canary Islands that if you're real lucky, you might see. When we come upon a group of whales or dolphins, we have a data sheet to fill out that details everything from type of ceteacan to behavior to weather conditions to location etc etc. We also take pictures of the animals in order to identify the individuals by their dorsal fins (which are basically like their fingerprint, all unique). Aside from help the boat crew with whatever they might need help with, we spend the rest of the time talking to the tourists about whales and about what we do.

Back at the research station after the boat trips are finished, we eat dinner and enter data sheets into the computer and download the pictures off the cameras. On days off, I'm either working on my individual research (which is about blue whales, but still in a very early stage), scuba diving, or taking the bus to the north of the island to play ultimate.