Dolphins in Los Gigantes
“There it is!”
The cry came just in time for me to catch sight of the fin breaking the water and silently parting it like a blade through cream. The bottle-nosed dolphin slowly glided forward, its sleek back glistening in the sun. Then it was gone. We waited, eyes frantically scanning the horizon where the fin had disappeared. Nothing.
Suddenly there was a splash and there it was, right beside the hull of the boat, just inches from where I stood. There was a uniform cry of excitement from the boat’s occupants and a dozen arms thrust mobile cameras seaward as the dolphin played in the clear waters for our entertainment.
Home to a large community of bottle-nosed dolphins and host to up to 27 species of whales and dolphins on migratory routes, the still, warm waters off the west coast of Tenerife are some of the best waters in the world for spotting cetaceans.
I was on board the beautiful ‘Katrin’, a former North Sea crabber and one of many boats that operate from the pretty marina of Los Gigantes and fly the ‘Barco Azul’ flag which shows that they’re operating within recommended guidelines which work to protect the cetaceans.
Along with the 16 other passengers there were two volunteers from the Atlantic Whale Foundation who were collecting statistics which help to build a picture of the pods that frequent the waters and those that are migratory. Although they were students on short term summer placements, they told me that the volunteers who have worked with the Foundation for longer can actually identify individual dolphins from the markings on their fins. Clearly this must take practice as I was still ‘getting my eye in’ to be able to spot a fin at all, let alone who it belonged to.
Seeing these beautiful creatures in their natural environment is a real ‘wow’ experience and doing it in a setting as attractive as the clear waters that surround the foot of the ‘giants’ from which Los Gigantes takes its name, is really just the icing on the cake.
Photo provided by The Atlantic Whale Foundation
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peter riley Said,
June 24, 2009 @ 6:28 am
I am at El Marques at the moment and have never been more upset at the lack of entertainment. Everyone who is here at this time feels the same way. When Jose is approached all he says that it is the economic climate and nothing can be done. Well here is the thing, we need something doing and by our next visit. please indicate the person or people we need to contact to rectify this problem. The life of the resort is flowwing out of the place. All the good things that Wimpen have done to appartments and installing lifts is more than undone by the short sightedness in not providing good entertainment, we are a family of 6 and would have loved to use the half board option but lack of entertainment meant that it was not worth it and other places had a more appealing menu. People will not give recomendations to family and friends so every appartment that comes up for sale will stay vacant and the slide will continue. Please send me the names of the all the comittee so that I can pass these on to the rest of the owners and they can make their views known