About
Futurismo

Mariana Silva is from Terceira Island and she joined our team in São Miguel in 2015. She did her Master’s degree in Marine Science in Lisbon, but came back to São Miguel to finish her thesis on oceanic fronts and spatial distribution of the big baleen whales that pass through the Azores. Mariana is one of our main marine biologists specialized in swimming with dolphins and Marine biology. She also spends time in a photo-identification project about bottlenose dolphins in the Azores. Since 2015, in the wintertime, Futurismo also has been developing several activities with one of the schools of Ponta Delgada. Mariana is involved in this project and she loves to ensure some values on environmental concern and awareness continue to gain shape and increasing presence and importance in the daily life of these little persons. She speaks Portuguese and English, and loves the sea and everything related to it, mainly marine mammal and seabirds photography. During her free time, she enjoys hiking with her dogs, sports and going to the beach.

Mariana knows very well the marine life of the Azores and why you should do whale watching here.

Watch the video  

Marina Gardoki was born in the Basque country but moved to Cadiz in the south of Spain to finish her studies in Marine Science. She has always loved the sea and the marine life. Marina is currently working in her Master’s degree in Biodiversity and Technology in the University of the Azores and joined our team in 2014, working as a tour guide in the sea. Marina has done a fantastic research about sperm whales in the Azores, mainly about our famous sperm whale “Mr. Liable”. This individual has a very interesting and rare behaviour, you can see the full video about it, in button below. Marina is involved in various projects regarding nature and marine life, including marine turtles, which are one of her favourite marine animals. 

Marina speaks in Spanish, French, Portuguese and English. She enjoys traveling and during her free time, Marina has fun in bio-agriculture, hiking, climbing and nautical sports. 

Meet Mr Liable and Marina Gardoki  

Fadia Al Abbar is one of our marine biologists. She traveled to places like Philippines, New Zealand or Malasia and claims she never saw cetaceans the way she does here in the Azores. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science and a Master’s Degree in Marine Resources Management and Ecology. She joined the Futurismo team in 2019 and one of her goals is to finish a Phd of echolocation about sperm whales.

She speaks English and Dutch and her hobbies are photography, surf and yoga!

Meet Fadia Al Abbar  

Iñaki grew up in the Basque Country. He studied Environmental Science and is one of the most energetic and enthusiast guides for whale watching in Futurismo. One of his passions it’s been environmental education. Children love Iñaki and love learning with him when Futurismo team visits the schools of Ponta Delgada! When you talk with him, after the second sentence you can see how passionate he is about cetaceans and nature. He tells us some amazing experiences he had with cetaceans.

He speaks Spanish, English and Portuguese.

Watch the video about Iñaki Cabo  

Carine Zimmermann from Switzerland is probably the most of our polyglot in our biologist’s team! She speaks in German, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Carine starting as a whale-watching guide since 2005 and she joined our team in 2017. She contributing to research and mainly raising awareness about cetaceans and their conservation. Since her early childhood, Carine is fascinated by sea creatures. With a background in environmental consulting and communication as well as in photography, she is a professional seafarer who gathered quite a bit of experience in practice after learning the theory. She is always happy to answer your questions about anything related to sea life.

Cristina was born in southern Spain where she did a degree in Environmental Sciences.
She worked as an environmental educator and in various LIFE projects on wildlife conservation.
She started sailing at Mediterranean Sea where she became familiar with research and sighting of cetaceans.
Already in the Azores, after a scholarship at the University she started working in Futurismo where she continues as a guide for whale watching and swimming with dolphins.

Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, English

Rafael is from São Miguel Island, and since the age of 9 he knew that his area was the sea. He started working in diving in 2016, after finishing his degree in Marine Biology. In 2016 he began working for Futurismo, and he is currently also working on his Masters in Biodiversity, focused on Risso’s dolphins. What Rafael enjoys most about his work is seeing people’s reactions when they are seeing the amazing species of the Azores for the first time. He also has a goal of becoming a skipper for Futurismo in the Future.

Languages: Portuguese and English.

Mário was born and bred in São Miguel and is one of the earliest members of the team. He began working for Futurismo in 2000 as a skipper and he is now the main skipper of our catamaran “Cetus”. But being a skipper isn’t his only job, as he also enjoys working on aspects related to the mechanics of our fleet of boats. When he goes to the sea he is is always vigilant and often spots even the smallest blow of a whale. He is very interested in the sea and he likes to get together with the biologists to talk about the marine life and the adventures he has experienced (there are many). Since he was young Mário has loved the sea and he never missed the opportunity to sail our waters.

Languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French

Fernando was born in Angola and has been living in Portugal since a young age. His connection with the sea began in the 90s, when he was a diver in the Portuguese navy. After leaving the navy he was a professional diver for about 20 years and in 2001 he went to Brasil to train in professional saturation diving. In 2003 Fernando moved to the Azores to be a dive instructor. Since 2010 he has been working as a whale and dolphin watching skipper and he joined Futurismo’s team in 2017. Besides his passion for the sea he also enjoys photographing wildlife.

Languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish

Languages: Portuguese, English

Ana has a degree in modern and applied languages and has been working in the company for several years. She is responsible for reservations and the functioning of our main shop and back office. Ana enjoys working as part of a team and is always in a good mood. Her passion is travelling and when possible she likes to explore other parts of the world.

Languages: Portuguese, English

Dina has a degree in social work and has much experience in customer service. She enjoys what she does and her main objectives are to focus on our visitors’ interests and giving them all the information they need to get to know the island. Dina receives each client with professionalism and a good mood. She also has great interest in travelling and nature./p>

Languages: Portuguese, English

Natalia’s training and experience is in the area of hospitality. During the past 2 years she has been working in Futurismo’s office and she stands out for her good work in accounting and administrative management. Natalia has an interest in travelling.

Languages:Portuguese, English

Milton is one of of our lookouts who is origninally from São Miguel. He started out as a fisherman on tuna boats, where he dedicated two hard years. He helped in constructing two tuna fishing boats and from there his interest in being a lookout began. After 8 years of being a lookout for tuna fishing boats he decided to look for “bigger animals”. So, Milton joined Futurismo’s team in 2016 as a lookout. He adores being in the outdoors, taking his binoculars and seeing what the ocean has to offer every day.

Languages: Portuguese, English

Roberto is the lookout that has been with Futurismo for the longest. Thanks to him we get to see so many animals during our whale and dolphin watching and swimming with dolphins tours. He began working for Futurismo in 2007, and since then he is one of the key members of the company. Roberto has years of experience and well trained eyes for finding and understanding whales and dolphins up to 45 km off the coast. In his free time he enjoys fishing.

Languages: Portuguese, English

José Coelho is a sea lover. He was born in the North of Portugal mainland and in 2004 he moved here to São Miguel Island. He has been working in Futurismo since 2018 and he is part of the team of our lookouts. They do an extraordinary work and they have a key role so we can find animals at sea. Friends and colleagues like to call him by his last name: Coelho (“Rabbit” in Portuguese). Between 2004 and 2018 he was skipper in the Naval Club of Ponta Delgada and also practiced diving and sailing. His career began early, with 17 years old as a volunteer in the Portuguese Navy, and in 1992 and 2002 he specialized in Communications course and became a Primeiro Marinheiro (“First Sailor” in Portuguese). During these 10 years he had the opportunity to travel through the Mediterranean, between northern Europe and Africa. He embarked on the Portuguese frigates Vasco da Gama and Álvares Cabral and also on the Baptista de Andrade corvette.

Laura González comes from Galicia, in Spain and she is passionate about the Ocean, and of course, about whales and dolphins. Laura is a marine biologist and oceanographer, who has concluded her PhD thesis on cetacean distribution around São Miguel, (Azores) in the University of Vigo in 2019.

She has focused on the oceanography around the island, habitat preferences of the most sighted baleen whales and also whale migration. You can find some of her publications in her profile on ResearchGate.

Laura worked on her Doctorate with data collected by Futurismo’s biologists during whale and dolphin watching tours for 7 years. Her work in Futurismo allows her to make one of her dreams come true combining research and fieldwork. She began working for Futurismo in 2010 and 8 years later, Laura started to coordinate the biologist’s team. She’s a professional and very dedicated to cetacean research. She founded the citizen-science project “Sail & Whale” in 2016, which intends to get long-term useful cetacean data involving citizens, sailors and scientists. So far, she has collected more than 600 sightings all over the Atlantic! She speaks Spanish, Portuguese and English, and a bit of Italian. Diving, sailing and horse riding are among her passions here in the Azores.

Meet Laura González