The AWdF is a UK registered charity; its mission is to support the protection of cetaceans throughout the Atlantic Oceans through education, research and conservation initiatives.
It runs the volunteer programme on Tenerife’s whale watching boats and has done so for thirty years. The whale watching boats let AWdF volunteers onto their boats free of charge to gain experience ‘research guiding’; some 12,000+ young people from around the world and particularly from across Europe, have enjoyed a fantastic experience on the boats with a great many, thousands, inspired to go into higher education, conservation, research and teaching as a result of their experience.
The AWdF’s education network throughout Europe is incredibly strong as a result. All our volunteers leave the island having been introduced to its culture, nature and communities, truly ‘knowing’ Tenerife!!!
It runs the volunteer programme on Tenerife’s whale watching boats and has done so for thirty years. The whale watching boats let AWdF volunteers onto their boats free of charge to gain experience ‘research guiding’; some 12,000+ young people from around the world and particularly from across Europe, have enjoyed a fantastic experience on the boats with a great many, thousands, inspired to go into higher education, conservation, research and teaching as a result of their experience.
The AWdF’s education network throughout Europe is incredibly strong as a result. All our volunteers leave the island having been introduced to its culture, nature and communities, truly ‘knowing’ Tenerife!!!
Relationship with Boat Owners
On the whale watching boats AWdF volunteers have five key roles:
1. Supporting the crews as much as possible. As young people they have to learn that, in life, it is important to be part of the team. We expect that they show the crews utmost respect at all times.
2. Research. We have kept continuous records (photo identification) of resident pilot whale and bottlenose dolphins family groups and of migratory species for thirty years. The data we collect, in addition to photographic records of dorsal fins, is defined by the Tethys Institute international symposium on cetacean research which defined the key parameters to be studied when researching cetaceans. We have over 13,000 unique observations spanning thirty years making our datasets one of the most extensive and long standing in the world.
100s of academic papers from A level to PhD have been produced. For example, currently, our data shows quite clearly the negative impact of the increasing presence of illegal boats on interactions with pilot whales in particular.
3. Education. The research data collected is interpreted for different user groups, including tourists on the whale watching boats. For example, we follow three particular pilot whale families and encourage tourists to help complete our understanding of each of the groups- respective social roles and characters of individual animals by taking their own photographs, so enhancing their whale watching experience.
We also contribute cetacean and conservation lesson plans to the TES website, the world’s largest teacher resource website with downloads of our materials running into 100,000s!
4. Conservation. Every year we raise awareness of a particular issue- hunting etc and encourage tourists to sign international petitions. For 2019, we are focussing on plastic
pollution and its impact on the marine environment. Our goal is to contribute 1,000,000 signatures from Tenerife’s whale watching community in support of AVAAZ’s global petition for the UN environmental summit at the end of 2019.
In addition we are working with the Plastic Bank in a collaboration which could facilitate the whale watching boats becoming ‘plastic neutral’.
5 Networking. We are working with Turitops to develop an on-line database of ALL cetacean projects in the Atlantic Oceans designed to help individuals and organisations support initiatives across the region. Several whale watching boats will be ‘adopting’ projects as part of their operations. The aim is to make Tenerife’s whale watching industry a centre of excellence across the region for the protection of cetaceans.
1. Supporting the crews as much as possible. As young people they have to learn that, in life, it is important to be part of the team. We expect that they show the crews utmost respect at all times.
2. Research. We have kept continuous records (photo identification) of resident pilot whale and bottlenose dolphins family groups and of migratory species for thirty years. The data we collect, in addition to photographic records of dorsal fins, is defined by the Tethys Institute international symposium on cetacean research which defined the key parameters to be studied when researching cetaceans. We have over 13,000 unique observations spanning thirty years making our datasets one of the most extensive and long standing in the world.
100s of academic papers from A level to PhD have been produced. For example, currently, our data shows quite clearly the negative impact of the increasing presence of illegal boats on interactions with pilot whales in particular.
3. Education. The research data collected is interpreted for different user groups, including tourists on the whale watching boats. For example, we follow three particular pilot whale families and encourage tourists to help complete our understanding of each of the groups- respective social roles and characters of individual animals by taking their own photographs, so enhancing their whale watching experience.
We also contribute cetacean and conservation lesson plans to the TES website, the world’s largest teacher resource website with downloads of our materials running into 100,000s!
4. Conservation. Every year we raise awareness of a particular issue- hunting etc and encourage tourists to sign international petitions. For 2019, we are focussing on plastic
pollution and its impact on the marine environment. Our goal is to contribute 1,000,000 signatures from Tenerife’s whale watching community in support of AVAAZ’s global petition for the UN environmental summit at the end of 2019.
In addition we are working with the Plastic Bank in a collaboration which could facilitate the whale watching boats becoming ‘plastic neutral’.
5 Networking. We are working with Turitops to develop an on-line database of ALL cetacean projects in the Atlantic Oceans designed to help individuals and organisations support initiatives across the region. Several whale watching boats will be ‘adopting’ projects as part of their operations. The aim is to make Tenerife’s whale watching industry a centre of excellence across the region for the protection of cetaceans.
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