Enjoying playful striped dolphins north of Alicante
Niki Entrup, our German MD, reports from the Spanish port of Alicante
Most people still don’t associate the Mediterranean Sea with an important habitat for a variety of whale and dolphin species. Even when speaking to locals in coastal communities some might be surprised to find out that nine whale and dolphin species are resident in the Med and this is certainly true when speaking to many people in Alicante.
Accompanying a TV crew from Austria, together with a journalist from Austria’s largest daily newspaper, we headed out to the Sea from Denia (around an hour drive north from Alicante), Wednesday the 17th. The boat left in the direction to Ibiza. It took us around one and a half hours when Maggie first spotted “something moving at around 11 o’clock” (when try to spot cetaceans from a vessel, people are asked to shout the direction of the spotting to the others relating to the time on a watch with 12.00 o’clock being the front of the boat).
We anxiously continued waiting for another 15 minutes, when a large group of striped dolphins suddenly appeared in a distance of around 500 Metres. The following half an hour was pure magic. Around 40 striped dolphins, split into three groups enjoyed the boats presence, coming close to inspect us while the engine was already turned off. Once the group already swam southwards and we started the engine, it took just a few moments, when some returned to enjoy bowriding close to the boat. A spectacular trip left the journalists and crew excited and made them refuse to eat tuna and swordfish in the evening as they learnt about the intense overfishing that occurs in the Mediterranean, one of the key problems whales and dolphins face.
Friday, Andreas Hanakamp from Team Russia was interviewed about changing marine ecosystems after spending many years at sea, as well as about the cooperation of Team Russia and it’s environmental Partner WDCS.
The programme, a 25 minutes documentary, will be aired on the 4th of October in Austrian TV, ORF.
Nicolas Entrup
Managing Director
WDCS Germany
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