Two weeks pretending to be a marine biologist

Waving the tail

Ever since I watched the Commandant Cousteau and Ushuaia on TV as a child, and later on David Attenborough's Deep Blue, some part of me wanted to become a marine biologist. But then how do you become a marine biologist in Switzerland, a country with no seas. My mother doesn't dislike nature but her preference has always tended towards man-made things. My father somehow failed to transmit his love of the environment to me as I was growing up, and I had to rediscover it all for myself as an adult. Our two weeks in Puerto Lopez working for the Pacific Whale Foundation were going to be my chance to test this long-forgotten idea.

Before getting to Puerto Lopez we had planned a short stop in Guayaquil to try to resuscitate our computer in a Toshiba-recommended repair centre. After checking our computer in with the technical guys and having a walk around a luxurious shopping mall in the vicinity to look at prices of brand-new equivalent laptops (so we could set an upper limit on the repair price – a “plan B”, if you will), we headed to the Malecón. A malecón is the street or path running beside the river or seaside. Guayaquil's has been fancily re-invented along a seamanship theme in the early 2000's and hence is known as the Malecón 2000. I was honestly surprised to see such a well-executed piece of urban planning in Ecuador and this, together with the luxurious mall, immediately changed our view of Ecuador as one of the least-developed countries of South America.

Malecon 2000

We walked the 2.5km from the Mercado Sur (a metallic market building, a bit like Borough market in London without the organic burgers and frappucinos) at the southern end to the bottom of Santa Ana hill at the northern end of the Malecón. On the way we passed a clock tower with Moorish features, two big sailing ships, one of which we had seen in photographs sailing around Cape Horn back in Punta Arenas (southern Chile), and a pompous statue of Bolívar shaking hands with San Martin surrounded by flags of most South American countries. Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín are unanimously recognised as their liberators from Spain (with the exception of Brazil and the Guyanas). The pair had a famous meeting, the content of which is unknown, but afterwards San Martín retired to France and Bolívar tried to set up Gran Colombia (an amalgamation of Columbia, Venezuela and Ecuador). Gran Colombia was a first step to his dream of a united South America but only lasted for eight years.

The Santa Ana hill is home to the barrio Las Peñas, the oldest part of the city. Carefully restored houses line cobbled streets and little staircases. On top of the hill sits a lighthouse from which you get 360° views of Guayaquil. A few years back Las Peñas used to be a dangerous neighbourhood in disrepair. Some cynics say that the restoration is only a façade and behind the colourful houses people still live in poverty. It is true that tourists are only allowed to walk the alleys that have been repaired with others parts being closed by metal gates. However, tourism is bringing income to the many little shops, cafés and restaurants that now adorn the streets and the heavy security presence has made the neighbourhood a much safer place, including for its residents. Also the council plans to continue the restoration programme and extend it to the neighbouring hill of Del Carmen. Click here for a few more pics of Guayaquil.

From the top of the lighthouse on Cerro Santa Ana

We travelled to Puerto Lopez the next morning to start our two weeks of volunteering. Carolina, who works for Cristina Castro the director of the Pacific Whale Foundation in Ecuador and our boss for our time there, picked us up from the bus stop to go to Cristina's house. Cristina turned out to be a bubbly woman, very passionate about her subject if a bit chaotic at times. She let us into our nice apartment with terrace and sea-view, and sat down with us to review the volunteering programme. Carolina then showed us around town so we could drop the laundry off and buy a local SIM card. We then met up with Cristina again, who showed us around town another time from the car, and gave us a introduction to the work of the foundation and some example results (whale tail matches between Antarctica and Puerto Lopez). The work focuses on humpback whales (megaptera novaeangliae, ballena jorobada in Spanish) and the principal activity is photographing the underside of the whale's tail (which is like a unique fingerprint) so that whales can be identified and their migration patterns followed. The area around Puerto Lopez is an important breeding and birthing ground for southern-Pacific humpbacks and so is a relatively easy place to study them. They migrate each year between Antarctica, to feed in the krill-rich waters, and their breeding grounds in the warmer waters off Ecuador and Colombia. Foundations along the Pacific coast of South America are able to photograph the pods (as do Antarctic expeditions) leading to information on their behaviour. The Pacific Whale Foundation is present in many countries where humpback whales are found, including Australia and USA.

Professional whale hunter

On a typical day, our job was to go out on one of the tourist boats. Perched on the upper-deck, we had to try to photograph as many undersides of tails as possible (not very easy, at all). We were also to photograph dorsal fins which can lead to identification too, especially to distinguish whales within one pod. However, it is thought to be less reliable for photos taken in different locations and at different times. Dorsal fins can be of various shapes – some are round, others hooked or pointed – and many have distinguishing marks or scars on them. With practice, we got used to identifying between the different whales in a pod whilst observing them. At the beginning they just all looked the same but perhaps we were too busy trying to take decent photos whilst being rolled around on the boat. We also took photos and video footage of interesting behaviour such as breaches (a whale jumping out of the water), pec slaps (a whale lying on its side and banging its pectoral fin on the water repeatedly) or tail slaps (a whale showing its tail and smashing it on to the water). Apart from taking photographs and video, we recorded the location of the whales with GPS, the number and type of animals present, how long we observed them for and their behaviour – all of this for each pod we encountered. This data is used to calculate statistics on how many whales are present in Puerto Lopez.

A tour on a tourist boat would normally take about three hours, during which we'd observe whales for a third of the time and see, on average, 2-3 pods with between 1- 3 whales. We'd also watch, on average, 3-4 other tourist being fairly sea-sick and vomiting over the back of the boat, an affliction we thankfully remain free of. Our normal boat was called “Humback Whale” and was captained by Charlie (+593 (0) 97638407). You can find him at the south end of the beach, look for a Saint-Bernard dog and a man with a curly mullet like Kevin Keegan in his pride. Cristina took this boat out for her research trips from time to time, and he knows how to find and follow whales. We also liked the boat of “La Plata tours” (www.laplatatours.com) on a quiet day. It is large so it can get crowded but has a spacious upper deck where you could get a good grip for photographing. The guide, Jose Rivera Gonzalez was knowledgeable and environmentally-conscious (+593 (0) 91839095). Not all boats, captains or guides are of equal quality. We once were on a boat where the captain steered shockingly close to the whales and crossed their path several time. Even if it pleases the tourists, they are not meant to do this as it disturbs them significantly. We reported this behaviour to Cristina and she had a strong word with the culprit. This seemed to help and we saw him steer better, at leat for the time we were there.

Breach

On return to shore, we would spend at least another three hours sorting the photographs and completing our notes. The pictures for each pod were organised by individual whale and we would carefully scour to see if we had any good quality tail photos. Somewhere in the day we also fitted in an hour of Spanish lessons with our excellent teacher, Freddy (+593 (0) 95095530, seriously recommended). With our own apartment I often cooked late in to the evening as well. About the only thing we couldn't fit in was progressing with our own blog and photos. Given our own computer was in the repair shop, Cristina was able to lend us one of hers for our time there. We also used one of her SLR cameras for photographing the whales, with our own compact camera being useful for shooting video.

The very first day which we were due to go out, the port authorities were not allowing boats to go to sea due to a storm threat. This lasted 2.5 days and caused much concern for the tourist boats as on the forthcoming weekend was the Independence Day holiday and should have been one of the busiest weekends of the year. In the end, boats were allowed out on the Saturday afternoon but, with the weather warning, Puerto Lopez wasn't quite as busy as it should have been. This threw the initial schedule out of the window. It was never redone, instead we played it by ear each day. As an alternative to a boat survey, Cristina took us to the office and introduced us to the process of tail matching. This consisted of comparing whale tails which had been photographed by the Chilean Antarctic research programme with tails that had been photographed between May and July that year. We learned that there are nine different categories of whale tails ranging from all white to all black, with several distinct patterns in between. This was painstaking work and in three days of concerted effort we didn't find one match. Fortunately, Carolina found two re-occurrences later that week in the photo-set she was comparing.

Deploying the hydrophone

On two occasions, we went out on a research boat with Cristina. A research boat is just a tourist boat which she hires for herself in order to stay out longer and see more whales. On these trips Cristina was able to explain more about whale behaviour so that we got a better understanding of what was happening within the pods. On the first research boat trip we were joined by a friend and colleague of Cristina's, Koen. He worked out of Lima for the International Whaling Commission (IWF), and so we had an extra expert to explain what was going on. We met a large pod of whales, including a female and several males who were fighting amongst each other for her favours. This is called a competition group and the males' behaviour can be quite impressive as they show off their strength by breaching. They may even bump into each other or try to force a competitor into submission by lying on top and blocking its blow-hole. The second time we went out on the research boat, Cristina took the hydrophone (and under-water microphone). After spending a long time observing a mother, baby and a rather aggressive male, we deployed the hydrophone several times to listen for whale chants. We were unlucky and didn't hear anything that day but Cristina did play a song she'd recorded previously. That same day we also saw a whale spy-hopping, this is when a whale stands vertically in the water only showing its head on the surface.

Blue-footed boobie

One day we took a tour to Isla de la Plata, an island about 35km off the coast. It is known as the poor man's Galapagos as it has some of the same wildlife and vegetation but is considerably easier to get to. We took our usual photos of whales on the way out there and then just enjoyed the tour for the rest of the day. During our walk around the island we saw many blue-footed boobies close up. They are very beautiful birds with attractive turquoise feet, though Dave thinks they look slightly comical. As it was mating season they were doing their nest and finding a partner. We saw one couple performing a mating dance and a parent caring for a small chick. It was mating season for the magnificent frigatebirds who were on the island too. For this species, the male inflates a bright red throat pouch, like a balloon, to attract a mate. The pouch disappears after three weeks and becomes a barely visible red dot. The tour also includes a snorkelling stop near one of the coral reefs circling the island. After much hesitation I adventured into the cold waters anyway and saw a green turtle swimming above the reef as well as many brightly coloured fishes. Whilst it was a worthwhile trip, there are many things you don't see here which you would in the Galapagos, and we remain keen to visit there one day.

Frigate in flight

Because we missed out going to sea on the first two days, and our overall travel schedule remained tight, we worked non-stop for the next 10 days. Before we knew it Lecia, our friend from the Antarctic Dream whom we've travelled with already several times, joined us in Puerto Lopez for our last outing. I enjoyed every single day out on the boat watching the whales and it really didn't feel like doing a lot of hard work, even when the photo sorting was tedious. With the Spanish lessons, the cooking and the photo organising the time flew by. It was occasionally chaotic, often busy but always very enjoyable and it never felt like the hard labour one often expects in a volunteering role.

We felt we learnt a lot about humpbacks, a little about animal charity work, and we got 10 decent whale tail photos to add to the catalogue (out of ~50 of varying quality - research papers suggest this is a reasonable hit rate). We were also able to share our experiences of Antarctica with Cristina who is keen to go next year. We talked a bit about other nature and tourism activities we'd seen elsewhere too, and what good points could be used on the whale tours in Puerto Lopez. One of the only downsides is that the weather is resolutely grey and cloudy in Puerto Lopez at this time of the year, with only a few afternoons of sun. After all our travelling in South America this felt strange. Nonetheless, we would recommend this volunteering experience without hesitation if you are looking for something to do with nature that isn’t requiring too much hardship and you got some money to spend (it isn’t cheap but a good proportion goes towards financing a thoroughly needed local research assistant). Contact Jim Lehmann at the Foundation for Center for Research of Whales (edecuador@yahoo.com or lehmannmath@yahoo.com, www.researchwhales.com) or Cristina Castro at the Pacific Whale Foundation (cristinacastro@pacificwhale.org, www.pacificwhale.org, www.pacificwhale.org/category/blogs-author/cristina-castro) if you are interested. Although I am a very happy HR manager now, I definitely still think I may have missed a career as a marine biologist after all.

For more photo of whales, Puerto Lopez and Isla de la Plata, follow this link.

Hooky and the tourists