Project Update: August - September 2008

Strait of Gibraltar Season

The first working season in the Strait of Gibraltar concluded successfully. We conducted observations of the behaviour of orcas and obtained excellent images of orca behaviour sequences. In addition, we obtained a photographic catalogue of behaviours highlighting the pursuit of orcas by pilot whales, theft of red tuna from fishermen by orcas and some seconds of submarine images of orcas.

We spoke to the Turmares scientific team and with Renaud de Stephanis, director of Circe and current director of the Sociedad Española de Cetáceos (Spanish Society of Cetaceans) to cooperate in the study of orcas and other cetaceans in the Strait of Gibraltar and which is currently underway in the area. Finally, the first informal interviews were conducted with Tarifa fishermen to further expand on the relationship between humans and orcas and other sea mammals from the psychosocial point of view.