{"id":49,"date":"2019-10-06T11:26:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T11:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whalewatchingazores.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/06\/my-internship-experience-in-futurismo\/"},"modified":"2020-01-27T10:09:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T11:09:22","slug":"my-internship-experience-in-futurismo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whalewatchingazores.com\/blog\/my-internship-experience-in-futurismo\/","title":{"rendered":"My Internship experience in Futurismo Whale Watching Azores"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
An internship is an opportunity generally offered by universities to introduce you into the experience of the work world. My stay at Futurismo Whale Watching Azores has been around almost two months, but, although it has been short, it has been a very enriching experience both personally and professionally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I already knew the company Futurismo before going there. I have been living for a while on the island of S\u00e3o Miguel as a fourth-year Erasmus student of environmental biology, and during that time I made a trip with the company. We saw common dolphins and sperm whales and I was very shocked to see those magnificent animals “at home”, wild. I thought how incredible it would be to be able to see even more species and other thousand things that I did not know, and that’s where my interest for cetaceans started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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So, six months later, my period of internship began. The truth is that I have been able to participate in almost all the activities that are carried out in the field of biologists. Most of the days we went to the sea looking for animals. It is exciting to think that you never know what you will see: you can see dolphins, whales, both of them or species and behaviours you have never seen before. It is also necessary to keep in mind that it may happen that nothing can be sighted: sometimes we have to settle for seeing seabirds because whales, dolphins and turtles have not let themselves discover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crew and guides on board are made up of skippers and biologists. During each trip, guides report the species that are being observed; cetaceans, birds and other marine species, explaining in detail their biology, as their main characteristics, the behaviour observed, the interactions with other species and other curiosities of interest. In addition, biologists register the data on data sheets and on the GPS. When we think of a dolphin species, we think that all are equal, but just as in people, each individual has its own characteristics (scars, notches, pigmentation) that distinguish it from others. On each trip, we took photographs of the animals and then tried to identify the individuals: this is a non-invasive technique called photo-identification that allows a better knowledge about the species population, migrations and habitat preferences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Animals are located from strategic points on land: the lookouts called “vigias” scan the sea with powerful binoculars in search of “splashes” and “blows” that indicate the presence of cetaceans. Once found, information such as species, direction and distance are given to the whale watching boats by radio. I had two opportunities to join the lookouts during the day. Although the binoculars that are used are very powerful, it is not easy to locate the animals and even less easy to know what species it is. It takes a very good look and experience to detect the small details. I remember when I was looking, for me every wave with a little white sea foam or every small boat was great whales or large groups of dolphins. In the beginning, it was a little frustrating, but it was finally very satisfactory to see clearly a group of bottlenose dolphins jumping just in front of a zodiac, I could not believe it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another aim of Futurismo is to organize educational activities with the purposes of awareness and environmental sensitization. During an afternoon, I accompanied the team to a local school to carry out an activity about the importance of water\u2026 Thanks to a set of didactic and active games, the children became completely involved in the dynamics and became enthusiastic about the subject. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was impressed by many things. One of them is the colour change that people suffer when it is getting seasick. Apart from that, it is amazing to see, for example, a blue whale a few miles from you, to realize its magnitude and to be aware that you have in front of you the largest animal in the world. But what I liked most is the passion that the crew transmits. When we were waiting for whales (\u201cWhale Waiting\u201d), an intense silence is created, you can see everyone with their eyes wide open scrambling the sea in all directions. When someone suddenly detects any signal, they start screaming due to the emotion, when the animal appears by surprise, very close, all are exclamations of surprise. You only can hear shouts of “Ohh” and people indicating the position that the animal can be seen: “At one o’clock!”, “Left side!”, you can see everyone happy and really enjoying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
If I had to choose a favourite species, it would definitely be bottlenose dolphins. Maybe it’s because I, unfortunately, had an image in the head based on those that are always displayed in aquariums: small, slim and falsely happy, and when I saw them free in the ocean, they managed to surprise me. They are very large and robust animals, but this does not prevent them from jumping two or three meters above the surface, they jump spectacularly. In addition, they are very sociable, they often approach the boats, they are very curious and when they get tired of us, they are free to leave. Once, I had the opportunity to swim with them. I will never forget the feeling of being in the middle of the Atlantic, feeling the “clicks” that dolphins make for eco-localization and, especially I will not forget a dolphin that stayed just under me looking at me for a while, as if I were aware that I was just a guest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, I take the opportunity to thank the whole team for the patience of teaching me (especially for repeating me a thousand times how to make the knots of the defences of the boats) and make me feel like one more. I am very grateful for this experience, I would like to keep related to the cetacean world, I consider that there are still many things that I would like to see and know more deeply, in two months there is time to see many things, but very few compared to the possibilities that exist, I still have the desire to see a breaching! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writen by Georgina Cabayol Ferraz <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An internship is an opportunity generally offered by universities to introduce you into the experience of the work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[328],"tags":[8,23,4],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Sperm](\"https:\/\/whalewatchingazores.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Georgina_Drawing_SpermWhale2.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Georgina](\"https:\/\/whalewatchingazores.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Georgina_taking_pictures_2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Georgina](\"https:\/\/whalewatchingazores.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Georgina_Drawing_SpermWhale1.jpg\")
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