WhaleFest's Incredible Oceans at the Outdoor Show

The London ExCel centre was brimming, bustling with people, packed with stands covering everything one would need for triathlons, climbing, diving and the great outdoors. It was the Telegraph Outdoor Show. There amongst the stands offering all kinds of kit or exotic locations, amongst the charities clamouring for attention and donations, sat atop of a black out structure was a life sized sperm whale and blue whale. It could mean only one thing. WhaleFest had once again brought it’s passion for the ocean, and army of volunteers, to the Show.  Entering the darkened space it took only a moment for the eyes to adjust and to then widen in awe as from all around life sized whales and dolphins abound. Hanging from the ceiling baby sperm whales, Risso’s dolphin, harbour porpoise, common, striped and white-beaked dolphin to name a few. Along one side a minke whale sits up with a calf beneath, in front sits a beluga. On the opposite side are a narwhal and two bottlenose dolphins. At one end a baby blue whale, and the other a mother and calf orca. The blue and patterned lighting gives the effect of being under the waves, the sounds of whales and dolphins from orca calls to humpback’s singing, gives the feeling of truly being immersed in the underwater world. 

On a table in the middle strange and wonderous artefacts light up the imagination, some of which seem stranger than fiction. A sperm whale tooth, the inner ear bone of a whale, the tusk of a walrus, the skull of a dolphin and of a sea lion are just some of them that awe kids and adults alike. 

Amongst the hustle and bustle of the Show, WhaleFest’s Incredible Ocean stand brings a corner of peace and inspiration. Inside our volunteers show all the amazing artefacts, challenging them to identify them, wowing them with the answers. Others meander looking around at the inflatables that seem as real as us, the light catching them in ways that mean out of the corner of the eye they might appear to move and be alive. All cannot resist taking pictures. All cannot resist regaling tails of incredible encounters they have had in the wild. There is no selling, advertising, endorsing. Just simple inspiration of our incredible oceans and the animals within. 

Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

Blinking and returning to the bustle outside of the cocoon that has become the Incredible Ocean stand, but our presence does not stop there. As if in a dream passers-by encounter mermaids, with fabulous tails and wondrous hair. The message about our ocean continues, but with a bit more of a fact finding mission. Would people like to see the teaching about ocean become part of our national curriculum for our children…. There seems to be a resounding yes in response. 

At one end of the stand we now encounter section of green netting lying seemingly innocent on the floor. Willing passers-by are dressed either as turtle, or a dolphin, or simply in diving flippers and then attempt to climb through the netting in the fastest time. It quickly becomes apparent how easy it is to become entangled and how hard it is to escape…. Now imagine being under water and being unable to reach the surface to breathe…. 

The volunteers end up inside an almost dome of netting within which sit the amazing pieces of artwork artists have created using ghost gear – discarded fishing gear- for the World Cetacean Alliance’s Untangled project. The pieces show how ghost gear can be recycled or recreated into something of value and are being auctioned off to help raise funds for the Net Effect campaign. So from the sadness and reality of entanglement, we see the positives of what the WCA and all its passionate partners and volunteers are doing to tackle the issue of ghost gear and entanglement. A light at the end of the green netting tunnel…..

WCAs Untangled display

As the end of the day draws near, I find myself retreating for one last time into the blueish darkness of the Incredible Ocean display and its inflatable whales and dolphins. Soaking up the calm, and the passion, fuelling me for the train journey home and recharging me until I can once again see, hear, and breathe in these incredible animals in the wild…. Roll on May.

To find out more about the WCAs Untangled Project please click here. And to see all the pieces up for auction go to our ebay site!

Also find out more about the Incredible Oceans outreach programme at the WhaleFest website!

WhaleFest 2015

Since crossing the Bay of Biscay my attention, energy and focus has been for WhaleFest 2015. This annual festival held in Brighton is the world’s biggest celebration of wild whales and dolphins. Since its beginnings in 2011 I have been involved with the virtual whale watch. There are not too many opportunities to go whale watching off Brighton, with perhaps the odd harbour porpoise to be encountered. But what is a whale and dolphin festival without whale watching? So each year we have set up boats, used some clever props and a screen and taken people responsible whale watching from the comfort of the venue. 

So once again I found myself sitting in a small inflatable boat with a group of kids and adults dressed in bright orange life jackets, bouncing on our new banana-type boat, cast in a blue glow. Only this time there is not one massive screen ahead of us. Around the boat stand up waves are positioned behind which a team of volunteers crouched, hidden from view. Above birds swoop from the ceiling, suspended in this magical blue light. Ahead are positioned two screens, not just one. The trip starts with me again requesting the life jacket whistles not be blown, and for people to remain on board our boat. We run through the responsible whale watching guidelines we will be sticking to should we be lucky enough to see whales and dolphins. Then we are leaving harbour and the calls of gulls and general background noise disappears as the engines gear up. A lighthouse just ahead moves away as we head out to sea. For the next 10 minutes or so whales and dolphins and even a beautiful turtle, appear not just from up ahead but from all sides. The massive dorsal fins of a pod of orca, a head as one spy hops, a stunning turtle swims past (it’s the most amazing turtle I have ever seen anyone make!), a giant sperm whale’s tail gloriously lifts up from behind one of those waves, while yet more whale backs are seen surfacing amongst the waves. The spray of their blow catches the blue light, swirling briefly before disappearing, catching the nearby passengers and making them call out in delighted surprise. 

The Virtual Whale Watch set up

We remove netting from over the side of the boat, before putting down not only a hydrophone to listen to the clicks of sperm whales, but also, its seems everyone’s latest toy, a GoPro. On one of the screens ahead a sperm whale appears out of the blue abyss, swimming upside down and then disappearing again. The kids love yelling every time something appears, screaming out what they reckon it could be, taking in the whole adventure and for the most part accepting the odd appearance of an arm or top of a head from behind a wave. As the trip nears its end, the setting sun appears behind the larger screen before the shadows of dolphins begin breaching against its orange glow. Out of nowhere more dolphins appear from behind the waves, the kid’s head whipping round as groups of three or four dolphins appear simultaneously from all angles. Then, seamlessly, footage of dolphins appears on the bow at the front of the boats, they are riding the pressure wave a boat creates, effortlessly keeping up. They are so close, seeming to peer up at us as we gaze down at them. As the trip ends the lighthouse reappears and there is one last chance to say thank you before the passengers pile off the boats and make their way out. We may in reality have never left the room, but it’s amazing what a little bit of imagination and one rather excitable guide can do to get kids and adults alike inspired by our truly breath taking ocean world. 

The Virtual Whale Watch at WhaleFest 2015

Once again WhaleFest has reached out to thousands. It was so easy to forget the thousands of people passing through outside the doors to our blue watery world of the virtual whale watch. There were sea shanties being sung, a shark zone with life sized inflatable sharks and a cave experience, hundreds of stands of whale watch companies and charities, campaigners and researchers giving inspirational talks on their work, people dressed as sharks and orca, life sized inflatable whales and dolphins surrounding a main stage where people like Steve Backshall, Monty Halls, Micheala Strachan, Gordon Buchananan, John Hargove, Ric O’ Barry and Will Travers talked to audiences of hundreds about their experiences with whales and dolphins. There was an auction of amazing experiences, kindly donated by World Cetacean Alliance partners, and 52 whale tails representing the wild soul of each of the orca currently in captivity. All raising money for the Wild and Free Campaign run by the WCA and Born Free Foundation. Out on the beach there was an emotionally charged arts installation of a mother and calf orca, made up of over 5000 crosses each representing f a whale or dolphin that has died in captivity. Through social media and by live streaming interviews with celebs, researchers and campaigners from the whale and dolphin world, the festival reached out to thousands more around the world who could not attend in person. Not only that, the Whale Graveyard on Brighton beach was seen by thousands, not just those who attended the festival itself, making passers-by stop and think about what we are doing to these sentient emotional beings locking them in tiny bath tubs and making them perform. 

The WCA Whale Graveyard on Brighton Beach

The power, passion and inspiration of WhaleFest, the ripple effect of what a few dedicated volunteers are doing and the difference we are making across the world never ceases to amaze me, and I am so proud to be involved. 

To find out more about WhaleFest please go to the website. To find out more about the WCA and the Wild and Free campaign please click here. 

Virtual Whale Watching

March 15th and 16th 2014, and without even leaving the Hilton Hotel I had guided nearly 10 whale watching trips in the Azores. I had helped passengers into rather fetching bright orange, bulky lifejackets and then climb into our boat. I had given them a chat about not throwing rubbish (or themselves!) overboard, about how we follow whale watching guidelines and how we collect data, turning round and pointing to my science guide, clipboard in their hand. We had then headed off, passing yachts and other boats, heading out past mount Pico. I had told them what to look for in order to help us find whales and dolphins, pointing out that it did not matter whether it turned out to be a whale, a wave or an office chair (it happens to the best of us!) I would rather they shout out. And not before too long we had come across a huge flock of Cory’s shearwaters followed swiftly by a small group of Risso’s dolphin. Heading on and we come across our first sperm whale, the largest of the toothed whales and famed for being Moby Dick. We get even more excited as suddenly a mother and her calf surface just ahead, resting at the surface before they dive, the mother lifting her tail high out of the water. 

Lifejackets, boat and whales!

We continue on, sperm whales can hold their breathes for over an hour so she may be some time, and are suddenly surrounded by a huge mixed group of bottlenose and common dolphins. The common dolphins come so close you can see them under water and hear them whistling. As quickly as they arrived the dolphins are gone and our search continues. As we travel I reach over and scoop a plastic bag from over the side, highlighting the issues of plastic in our oceans and the problems it causes when eaten by whales, dolphins and turtles. Then there ahead, another sperm whale, a big male this time. He is huge. We watch as he breathes at the surface, you can feel the spray from his blow on your cheek, before he too lifts his massive tail into the air and dives. Camera’s click madly as out science guide gets a picture for photo ID. 

A sperm whale dives beneath the waves

It’s not over though as we now come across a nursery group of young sperm whales. Time for the hydrophone. With one passenger clasping the end of the rope we lower the underwater microphone over the side and listen carefully. Regular clicks can then be heard, sperm whales echolocating beneath us, searching for their prey. Before too long it is time to leave, the last whale lifts it tail and dives beneath the waves, we haul in the hydrophone and head for home. But never say never, as we speed a long one final dolphin leaps out from infront of us. 

One final leap of a dolphin!

And then there is land, and more boats and the harbour again. We are back. I thank them for coming, for yelling loudly everytime they saw a whale, and for listening. I tell them to go and ask whale watch operators whether they follow guidelines, pick up litter, collect data, and encourage them to go whale watching responsibly. 

This is virtual whale watching WhaleFest style. The boats are real, the lifejackets are real, the whales are real, well on the screen they are. Real water is sprayed at the kids when the whale surfaces, eliciting shouts of surprise and delight. The clicks and whistles are real recordings. You can really feel the wind in your hair as a fan surreptitiously whirls from the side of the screen. And the screen! A huge, curved horseshoe shaped behemoth of a screen that really does make you feel like you are there. 

That was my WhaleFest 2014. Now perhaps I should actually go to the Azores…..

Sweet Release

When I first heard about the Orca Morgan’s story I was angry. Angry at those who had stolen her chance of finding her family and stolen her life. It’s not the fact that she was taken from the wild, she was alone and starving when found, it’s natural to want to help. That I understand. What I am angry about is that once in human care she was put on display against the conditions of her permit, fed dead instead of live fish and ultimately, despite all the evidence and a viable release programme, sent to live the rest of her days in a concrete tank in Tenerife where she is bullied and abused by the other whales and it seems her keepers.

The fight to free Morgan continues, the verdict from the latest court hearing is due sometime in April (they keep delaying for some reason…) and all the while people keep protesting, raising awareness not only of Morgan’s story but also of the plight of all other captive cetaceans. The battle against SeaWorld and all other dolphinariums is well and truly underway.

The issue of whales and dolphins being kept in captivity and particularly Morgan is just one of the campaigns the World Cetacean Alliance is running. The Long Swim to Freedom campaign features the issue to free Morgan AND to save the last 50 Maui’s dolphins – New Zealand’s critically endangered endemic dolphin. And what better way to raise awareness and support for this campaign then at WhaleFest 2014 the world’s biggest celebration of wild whales and dolphins. But how to make an impact beyond those who tread the halls of WhaleFest? How to send a message to the world beyond?

Well, why do what we are all dreaming of and release an Orca?

Sounds impossible right? Well for Morgan, and the many other Orca in captivity there are very real options for this! But aside from that, for a group of willing volunteers no matter how much they may want to, releasing a real Orca into the sea off Brighton may be pushing it. But who says it has to be real to make an impact? 

Our Morgan, lifted onto Brighton beach 

So that is what the amazing people at WhaleFest did. They got a life sized Orca, named Morgan, and they drove her to the promenade in a real rescue stretcher. There she was hoisted up and over the railings onto the pebble beach using a real crane. From there, amongst the crowds of people, she was carried down the beach and into the water. Rescue boats from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (the charity which actually does rescue stranded whales and dolphins from around the British coast) came and escorted her offshore. Through the mist of a foggy evening our Morgan was set free, to the tumultuous shouts and applause of the watching crowd.

Followed by crowds Morgan is carried down the beach to the sea

Once on the water she is taken over to waiting rescue boats
by non other than World Renowned Orca Researcher Ingrid Visser

BDMLR boats lead Morgan away into the fog and to her freedom

Of course our Morgan was brought back ashore – we are certainly not ones to pollute our ocean with rubber and plastic no matter what shape it takes – but the message was there, clear and simple. Free Morgan.

Find out more about the fight to Free Morgan at the Free Morgan Foundation website and find out more about the World Cetacean Alliance and the work they are doing here.