Azores : Whatever the weather

Update from our marine conservation volunteering holiday in the Azores archipelago, working on whales, dolphins and turtles

In the words of Crowded House, it feels like we’ve been ‘walking round the room singing stormy weather’, as the seas have put on quite a show. This has also curtailed our boat time but not put a full stop to data collection or image processing – there are always things to do on the expedition – whatever the weather!

Indeed the worst of the sea conditions provided an opportunity for a day off and time spent exploring Faial, and enjoying the visual spectacle of the mid-Atlantic. It also gave an opportunity to process more data, and the chance for another talk; this time from Cláudia Oliveira from the Azores Whale Lab on the role of photo-identification and bioacoustics for sperm whale studies. Again, illustrating the power of data collection such as ours.

Over the past few days, we have travelled almost 400 km over four days at sea. The group has been able to add vital cetacean data to this year’s haul, add a new bird species, and the numbers of encounters and individuals have also increased. A great effort by another great group.

So, as we bid group 2 farewell, we now welcome group 3; and we hope you bring the luck with the whales and the ‘weather with you’.

Safe travels all.

Update from our marine conservation volunteering holiday in the Azores archipelago, working on whales, dolphins and turtles