Month of August , 2007

After a day's sail from south Tenerife, the Morgan and crew is now in Puerto Mogan in Gran Canaria. The Morgan will be staying here for the next two to three weeks.

With our first film now in the final stages of editing, we have started working on two others. This morning we were out on a whale watching excursion for a film about the whale watching industry and its potential to protect marine mammals. The whale watching industry has its supporters and its critics.

Like most other people, we spent our weekend enjoying ourselves in good company – with Antonella and Maria, our friends from SECAC (www.museodecetaceos.org), and the Pilot whales of Tenerife, our friends from the sea. The weather on Saturday was grey and overcast, making the sea grey. The sea and sky blended together in a grey haze.

When we visited the two wildlife recovery centres in the Canary Islands, one on the island of Gran Canaria and the other here on Tenerife, we learned that the two biggest killers of marine life are plastic and fish hooks. We had seen basins of turtles recovering from operations to remove fish hooks, and x-rays of hooks embedded in the stomach and intestines of turtles. Today I came face to face with a turtle that had swallowed a fish hook.

Albino animals in the wild are rare. They are less able to blend into their surroundings and are therefore much more vulnerable to predators. They rarely reach adulthood. So we were very surprised and pleased to see an albino adult Rough-toothed dolphin in a pod of 15 individuals in south Tenerife.

From 10 to 17 August, Ernie van Onlangs will again be in the Netherlands. He will work together with the production company working on the first Morganonline full length film. Joanna Bouma and Quirky will remain on board the Morgan in Tenerife, continuing activities there.