Ship's blog

Turtles are dominating my week. After taking a mortally wounded turtle to the Centro de Recuperación de Fauna Silvestre (Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre for Wildlife) in La Laguna a couple of days ago and miserably watching it being euthanised, I became involved in the rescue of another Loggerhead turtle.

‘This was the first time I’ve seen an animal euthanised’ I told our friend Susana Saavedra on the way back from the Centro de Recuperación de Fauna Silvestre (Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre for Wildlife) in La Laguna. She looked at me.

Many animals scare off predators by their intimidating appearance. And so it is with the moray eels. But despite their fierce appearance they are usually harmless to divers. They will not bite divers unless provoked. We went to find the beautifully coloured Tiger Moray, and we found not only this species, but also the more common Dotted Moray Eel.

Coming back from taking Quirky for her long morning walk, both of us looking forward to breakfast, we noticed that someone was already busily tucking into his breakfast. A many armed starfish was greedily hugging and eating a dead Sharpnose puffer fish, right under the pontoon.

How do you dive without getting wet? Well, one way to do so is in a submarine. Here in the marina of San Miguel in Tenerife is a small yellow submarine that takes visitors on an hour’s trip outside the marina to enjoy the marine life. So for the first time we joined a trip. While it was fun, it was also work.

The eighth of June is World Ocean Day. It is a day that gives recognition to the blue planet and the wondrous life within. It is also a day in which we should stop and think about what the oceans give to us human beings. In the first place, the plankton in the ocean provides us with over 60 percent of the air we breathe. The ocean really is the lungs of the earth.