I wanted to do a tourism conservation
project. I Googled and found Tethys Research Institution. They did many
projects aimed at protecting the wildlife in the Mediterranean Sea. They had a
project in Greece studying the Ionian Dolphin but the dates didn’t work out. My
sister then wanted to join me on the holiday. We found another one of the
projects in the Ligurian Sea. Its aim was to study cetaceans in the area. You
were required to live on board the boat for the full week. We were game.
We
signed up.
We were due to meet the group (who were all
unknown to us) in San Remo in Italy. We were having an introduction evening,
dinner and then would set sail in the morning. We flew out to Nice with the
intention of catching the train to San Remo (as the instruction book had
suggested.) We took the first flight out of London in order to give us all day
to get to Italy even though it was a short trip. We arrived at the station and
asked for two tickets to San Remo. The train has gone. There is one tomorrow
the girl said. WTF? Were we going to have to get a cab? She then said that
there were many more trains but it required one change and wasn’t direct. Phew!
Why didn’t she say that in the first place? We made it to San Remo and enjoyed
some lunch in the sun by the sea.
We met the rest of the group as we boarded
our boat called Peligos.) There were about 15 of us in total. 4 marine biology
students from Milan University, a German couple, a French girl, a German woman
and some others whose nationalities have escaped me but Natalie and I were the
only two Brits. They were all really nice as were our marine team: Sabine,
Massimo, Nuno and Roberto. Our skipper looked like he had led a very good life at
sea and was rarely without a cigarette in his mouth!
The team briefed us that
we would be looking for striped dolphins, Sperm Whales and if we were lucky Risso’s
Dolphins. We would be taking it in turns to do one hour shifts from the lookout
to spot for them at sea. We would also have a rota as to who was to cook
breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the week. Natalie and I drew a very good
straw and only had to do breakfast on the last day. Easy peasy. Our cabin was
snug to put it mildly but we were not on the trip for comfort so it was fine. The
whole week was so interesting. We lost count of the hundreds of dolphins we saw
and recorded. Listening to their language was very interesting. I loved it when
the dolphins came over to the boat and swam next to us as we were all sat with
our legs hanging over the boat. Until now I hadn’t realised that the reason the
dolphins swim at the front of the boat is because it creates a pull which means
that they don’t have to swim as hard. Who knew?
Our marine team told us all about the
plight of sea life in the sea. Ironically the common dolphin is all but that in
the Mediterranean due to the now lack of sardines in the sea due to human
consumption of the fish. We didn’t spot any whales during the week but that
didn’t spoil the trip at all. Being at sea for a full week was unique to say
the least and we got to swim off the side of the boat when we were far out to
sea which was fantastic, especially when we knew the animals we were sharing
the sea with.
I loved this trip and finishing it off with
an Italian ice cream when we were back on shore was lovely.
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