Research Institute Alnitak

[Helen Seville]

Just came across this wonderful project…

This year Research Institute Alnitak is on a voyage that will take the 1910 ship Toftevaag from the Balearic Islands to Andalucía and back.
Ports will be Cartagena, Almería, Carboneras, Almerimar, probably Motril, Adra, and likely also further west, even Malaga, Tarifa and others. In August we head back to Menorca.
The goals:
Survey marine garbage, ilegal fishing, ghost gear, and how it affects wildlife. Thanks to this research, we hope to identify aggregation sites and also production areas.
Survey top pelagics: dolphins, turtles, whales and more. With a focus on loggerhead turtles and Risso’s dolphins, but also collaborating actively with partners monitoring fin whales, sperm whales, and more. In terms of turtles, we use satellite transmitters to collect vital data, implementing the Stanford University / National Geographic – Tag a Giant vision.
Monitor MPAs (marine protected areas) and strategies such as the marine traffic separation scheme off Almería which was implemented to reduce ships strikes. Many times, marine protected areas only exist on paper, and its up to groups like us to go out there and basically check what is actually being done.
And much more!
These projects are supported by and in partnership with US Fish and Wildlife, NOAA, Stanford University, OceanCare, Reina Sofía Foundation, SOCIB, Ecoembes, and others.
Despite COVID-19, our “Monitoring the Open Seas” volunteer program is open and anyone interested in 10-day expeditions can email me at alexanders2311@gmail.com to secure a spot on board. This program has run uninterrupted for 30 years, and has seen over 3000 volunteers of over 90 nationalities come aboard Toftevaag to contribute to marine conservation.
As opposed to other volunteer opportunities where the contribution and involvement is limited, this one is “immersive” (you have been warned): you live on board the ship, everyone from the captain to yourself has shifts in cooking, cleaning, etc., you are trained to take scientific data, can use our equipment on board such as hydrophone and cameras, and quite frankly, we tend to forget who is volunteering and who is crew
Every expedition is different, some with better weather than others, some with surprises (such as a white shark sighting in 2019 – you never know what will happen out in the open water), and every volunteer leaves his or her mark behind. Some enjoy the experience so much that they return yearly.
If you want to keep updated, please “like” our new Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/todosporlamar
And don’t hesitate to drop comments here, or email me. I don’t check my Facebook PMs much, so I’d advise against that.
PS. If you simply fancy saying “hi” in port, thats also fantastic of course! Please ask for me, say you are from this group, and we can have a coffee or something on board!

Website is here: https://www.alnitak.org/

 

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Breathe and try to be nice to people 🙂

[Rachel]

A great article here from Alexander Sánchez Jones clearing up the gutter press myths around the covid lockdown and “amazing sighting of whales and dolphins in the med”

Well worth a read!: https://www.thelocal.es/20200508/is-lockdown-really-bring-spains-sea-creatures-closer-to-shore/

[clive Grazalema]

What a fantastic project!

More here: https://wildsideholidays.co.uk/mediterranean-expeditions-with-the-research-institute-alnitak/

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Take a trip on the Wildside!

https://wildsideholidays.co.uk (Wildlife and nature holidays in Spain)

https://grazalemaguide.com/ (All my web projects in one portal and everything you need to know about Grazalema)

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