Ship's blog

We were glad to arrive in Puerto Calero in Lanzarote, the last destination for the Morgan for a while. The 140 nautical mile sail from Puerto Mogán in Gran Canaria would normally have taken 20 to 24 hours, but wind and current were against us and with the deadline we have, we could not afford the time to wait for better winds.

To gather film images and interviews about good business practices in the whale watching industry, we needed to interview a representative from a suitable company and film the industry in action.

Between 4 and 17 September, with the exception of a day here and there, we spent every day at sea with Silvana, Monica and Vidal of SECAC [see also www.cetaceos.org], filming them at work.

With our first film now in the final stages of editing, we have started working on two others. This morning we were out on a whale watching excursion for a film about the whale watching industry and its potential to protect marine mammals. The whale watching industry has its supporters and its critics.

Like most other people, we spent our weekend enjoying ourselves in good company – with Antonella and Maria, our friends from SECAC (www.museodecetaceos.org), and the Pilot whales of Tenerife, our friends from the sea. The weather on Saturday was grey and overcast, making the sea grey. The sea and sky blended together in a grey haze.

When we visited the two wildlife recovery centres in the Canary Islands, one on the island of Gran Canaria and the other here on Tenerife, we learned that the two biggest killers of marine life are plastic and fish hooks. We had seen basins of turtles recovering from operations to remove fish hooks, and x-rays of hooks embedded in the stomach and intestines of turtles. Today I came face to face with a turtle that had swallowed a fish hook.