Multiacuatic

To gather film images and interviews about good business practices in the whale watching industry, we needed to interview a representative from a suitable company and film the industry in action. Our friend from SECAC [see also www.museodecetaceos.org], Silvana Meira das Neves helped us with this by arranging an interview with Andres Kozlowski, co-director of the whale watching company Multiacuatic.

As in many other industries, there are several illegal and exploitative operators posing as legitimate whale watching companies, so we were glad to meet another company that operates according to national and international guidelines [see: ‘Filming whale watchers’]. Multiacuatic operates out of the small harbour town of Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria. We met Andres at the ticket office and walked over to the vessel to do the interview. While Multiacuatic is a commercial company whose point of departure is profit, it also strives to meet its responsibilities towards its employees and provide its visitors with the best experience possible while respecting the code of ethics regarding the dolphins and whales.

Andres and his colleagues see the educational role that whale watchers have in informing the public about dolphins and whales, and in collaborating with research organisations to help further their work. This is the reason they have made a link with SECAC, the Canary Islands’ highly regarded cetacean research organisation. In a win-win situation, Multiacuatic allows a SECAC biologist on board who can photograph and observe the cetaceans for research purposes. In return, the biologist acts as a guide, informing the visitors about the species they have seen and the animals’ behaviour. While a whale watching excursion does not strictly adhere to scientific practice, it does give the biologist an invaluable opportunity to spend time with the cetaceans, observe their behaviour, note rarely seen species, count numbers and note new-borns.

Apart from a guide, the skipper Ignacio and first mate Guillermo have received special training in species identification and about approaching animals. During a sighting all music and the information microphone are switched off in order not to disturb the animals unduly and to allow the visitors to enjoy the animals. The vessel is hung with posters showing different marine species, and after leaving the sighting, information sheets are handed out to the visitors.
 

We were free to talk with whoever we chose, so I took the opportunity to talk to a couple of visitors. The two ladies from Ireland were very enthusiastic about the trip. They had longed to see dolphins and were now happy to have had the chance to see them. This was their overriding joy. While they had learned something about the animals, they were thrilled to have simply seen them and would tell all their friends and family at home about their experiences.

Multiacuatic is one of the whale watching companies in the Canary Islands that has earned the ‘Barco Azul’ (Blue Boat) flag, which is actually yellow. This means that it is fully licenced, adheres to the code of conduct governing whale watching, and has a specialist guide on board.

For a rough guide to ethical whale watching see ‘Filming whale watchers’]