Whale Watching tour for local teachers
Biology teachers at sea!
La Gomera, 2014.
Due to the close cooperation with OCEANO La Gomera and the contact to the local school in the Valle Gran Rey at La Gomera, it has been possible to invite biology teachers on a tour out to sea with OCEANO. Beforehand, marine biologist Volker Boehlke held a lecture for the teachers at their school about „Life at the coast of La Gomera“. We are pleased about this development, since M.E.E.R. e.V. repeatedly invited the teachers to use the trilingual exhibition also for their lessons.
Campaign for teachers of the „Instituto de Educación Secundaria de Valle Gran Rey“
Volker Smit, chairman of our organisation, already got in touch with the school in the last year. Principal Xerach had been offered a professional lecture for the teachers. Volker Boehlke, our biologist on site, first held a talk about the life in the tidal water ponds of the island. The teachers were visibly astonished about the new information. Even though some of them are quite well versed themselves, Volkers numerous anecdotes and details were new to them. A lot of data has been added to a PowerPoint presentation, so that the teachers can use and held the presentation themselves in the future at their school. Of course, M.E.E.R. e.V. also offered to use the presentation area of the M.E.E.R. exhibition for these lectures. At an additional meeting, Rolf Ahlers (active MEER-member and owner of the whale watching vessels) offered to use one of the vessels free of charge for a tour out to sea. This offer has been accepted thankfully and is reported here:
Tour
It took a long time before the first sighting, but the 7 teachers turned out to be very entertaining people. You could already hear their chatting from afar and they brought a cool box and a big picnic basket filled to the top. Our biologist, who is a very talkative guy himself and not lost for words, had some difficulties to get the attention within the teachers’ stream of words. (‘They didn´t lose breath even once on the whole tour!’). In the end, the playful Spotted Dolphins were sighted, which came very close to the boat. After some time we couldn´t follow them anymore due to stronger winds. While already heading back to the coast, a whale´s blow suddenly made us turn around. We even spotted two Bryde´s Whales pretty close to the boat. After such a great sighting, the Bottlenose Dolphins we saw on our way back were an extra bonus to us. Swimming sideways, they stared into everyone’s eyes like mesmerised, which made it really difficult to leave them again and return to the harbour. In total, we spent 4 ½ hours at sea. For sure, this won´t be the last tour for these teachers. Altogether, the tour was a great success. Now we are looking forward to another lecture, this time on whales and dolphins.