One morning in February 2018, the body of a sperm whale appeared floating off the coast of the Canary Islands. The animal had a deep cut on its head and others on its tail. It was a young male that died after being hit by a boat. It was sperm whale 3418, identified off the coast of Pico Island in the Azores fifteen years earlier, which ended up dying in the Canary Islands due to the lack of control of high-speed boats.
Beyond the land boundaries, in the Canary Islands, a natural open-air laboratory extends to study some of the most fascinating animals on the planet: cetaceans. The name of this class of marine animals comes from the Greek kētos, which means whale or sea monster, and includes more than eighty marine species with lungs that are adapted to live entirely in the sea.
"The Canary Islands, especially the waters between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, have one of the greatest biodiversities in the world," thus the archipelago is a privileged space and concentrates up to "31 species, most of which are rare or little-known species, such as the beaked whale," says biologist Francesca Fusar Poli, secretary of the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Islands Archipelago (SECAC), based in Lanzarote.
This non-profit organization was founded in 1993 in Arrecife with the aim of carrying out and promoting research and conservation projects in the archipelago. Its work seeks to analyze both the situation of specimens that strand and reach the coast, and those that are sighted alive in the sea.
In the Canary Islands, boats are the main cause of death for sperm whales, but also for other cetaceans. According to the Canary Islands Government's Stranding Network, between 2000 and 2014, 83 cetaceans that arrived dead on the coast of the Canary Islands died after colliding with a boat. However, the figure would be much higher, because not all bodies reach the Canary Islands shores.
The constant passage of these boats generates two problems: the direct death of marine animals or the indirect death. From being run over by a boat, dying and ending up stranded on the coast, to the stress caused by the noise generated by the boats under the water, where the sound is transmitted "five times more than in the air" and affects their vital functions.
"Now there are more and more ferries, more maritime traffic," and this translates into a constant search for information "to keep up to date with the conservation status" in which the animals are found.
In the case of vulnerable species, such as the bottlenose dolphin, the young must be protected even more, but the passage of jet skis, boats or ferries and the stress to which they are subjected can cause their death. "The young are much more vulnerable than adults and also the loss of a young, especially of a cetacean, where the intervals between young are very long in time and where they give a lot of parental care, well, of course, the young are super vulnerable because they are usually closer to the surface, closer to the land," says the coordinator of the Sperm Whale Project of the Canary Islands.
The importance of analysis at sea
For the campaigns that SECAC carries out at sea, they use scientific techniques such as photo-identification and bioacoustics. The project has its base port in Marina Rubicón, in Puerto Calero, from where they usually depart to do fieldwork on the eastern coast of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. These methods allow "to collect data to expand knowledge about these species and promote their conservation."
SECAC develops its work through different projects. Among them, a citizen science initiative, based on dissemination, where they offer the interested population three days of training in exchange for a donation to cover the rent of the boat and gasoline, while taking the opportunity to continue investigating the situation of cetaceans on the coasts of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
For the autumn-winter season, the places for the October, November and December campaigns are already covered. "Anyone can embark and we are very happy because thanks to this we can continue to carry out our work, since in scientific research there is always a lack of resources," explains the expert.
Among the milestones achieved in its 30 years of history, SECAC managed, through a European project, to declare the eastern waters of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura as a Site of Community Importance, due to the presence of the bottlenose dolphin and the loggerhead turtle (caretta caretta), both classified as vulnerable species. "This is one of the greatest achievements of SECAC," adds Fusar.
Despite this, the protected marine area and the Site of Community Importance are only protected "on paper." Currently, "nothing is being done," she laments, "it is more a matter of paperwork than real restrictions," says this biologist. That is why their work is crucial to "generate knowledge and know exactly what kind of measures need to be taken" to protect the cetaceans that swim through the Canary Islands seas.
Among its proposals is the option of restricting the speed of boats to avoid collision with cetaceans, but they defend fieldwork as a way to offer other ideas as well.
The role of whales in the fight against climate change
"Cetaceans are environmental sentinels, they are fundamental, it was recently made public that they act as environmental engineers by sequestering carbon," says Francesca Fusar, who has a degree in Environmental Biology and a master's degree in Experimental and Applied Biology from an Italian university, worked as a biologist in the Maldives and now, since 2018, does so in Lanzarote.
The International Monetary Fund already advanced in 2019 that whales can limit greenhouse gases and global warming, being "a solution of nature to climate change." Broadly speaking, these marine mammals release huge plumes rich in nutrients when defecating. Phytoplankton, essential for the creation of oxygen, needs the feces of these whales to grow.
In addition, when they die, their bodies sink to the seabed, where the carbon contained in their carcass "can maintain deep-sea ecosystems." Added to the environmental work of whales, Fusar explains that "where there is more biodiversity, there is more wealth and this determines that the waters are much healthier."
The Sperm Whale Project of the Canary Islands
Among the current initiatives, the entity works on the Sperm Whale Project of the Canary Islands, coordinated by Francesca Fusar and which started in 2019. The sperm whale (physeter macrocephalus) is listed as a vulnerable species in the Regional Catalog of the Canary Islands, in the National Catalog of Threatened Species and in that of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
According to a genetic analysis with samples from the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, there are two possible populations: one formed by the animals of the Azores and the other by those of Madeira and the Canary Islands. During these five years of work, the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Islands Archipelago has been able to know that sperm whales use all of Macaronesia in their movements. "To make a hypothesis, we would not only talk about the Canary Islands, but that the sperm whale inhabits the entire Macaronesia and therefore the need to conserve the entire region," she explains.
Francesca Fusar adds that sperm whales are "a species that is not easy to find, although we can perfectly spot it in the islands." It is not easy because they move "in groups in which many times the individuals are kilometers away from each other." To which is added that, unlike dolphins, these animals are more difficult to observe on the surface, because it is not a species "so acrobatic" and shies away from boats when approaching.
In the different sightings that SECAC makes between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, they have managed to photo-identify 200 sperm whale specimens. They have managed to identify these specimens and take a photograph of their caudal fin, "as if it were a fingerprint."
Animals as well known as whales, orcas or dolphins are part of this that fascinates biologists and that create in the islands an ode to biodiversity.
The marine biodiversity of eastern Lanzarote
During its scientific expeditions in the eastern part of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the non-governmental organization sights herds of Atlantic spotted dolphins, striped dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and rough-toothed dolphins. In addition to the cuvier's or blainville's beaked whales, and the tropical whales, among others.
During their expeditions, they point out that "I don't know if it is due to climate change or other factors", but every year they perceive more sightings of humpback whale or yubarta and also of orcas. "It would be very interesting to be able to deepen this information, that is, that in recent years more orcas have been found in the Canary Islands, we do not know if we are an exceptional factor, that is, the best is due to some climatic factor."
After years of going to sea and knowing the reality of Lanzarote, the biologist defends that "people are very afraid of sharks, when really it is the sharks themselves who are afraid of us." For example, in the encounters of some SECAC expedition with hammerhead sharks, the animals move away from the boat.
To conclude, she explains that "the animals never approach to really try to do harm. We must remember that it is forbidden to bathe with them, they are wild animals, and you have to have a certain distance but I do not see their aggressiveness."
