THE 'CALDERON PROJECT'

      I was involved in the ‘CALDERON PROJECT’, conducted by the Institute of Coastal Ecology. (El Campello, Alicante, Spain) http://www.ecologialitoral.com/.

      This project compared the quality of marine waters and coastal biodiversity aboard the Karyam http://www.cetaceosynavegacion.com/el-barco/ in the region of Murcia, Mazarrón,(Spain).

     The main objective of the project is the conservation of cetacean populations living in southeast coast of Spain and the quality of coastal waters in general.

                                                                          

Specific objective:

•  Raising public awareness of the need to contribute individually and collectively in maintaining populations of cetaceans and marine reptiles, as well as the quality of their habitats (coastal water quality).

Results: 

• Training of professionals  in the study, planning and management of coastal areas, and in the study of cetaceans.

• Creation of a code of conduct or manual techniques respectful whale watching and marine reptiles.
• Increase in all sectors of society the knowledge and the respect for coastal environment, as the only way of reconciling development and the environment.

      Calderón or ballena piloto, long-finned pilot whale, baleia-piloto-de-aleta-longa are the common names in Spanish, English and Portuguese for Globicephala melas. The adult females are about 4 meters long and the males up to 5.5 meters. They dive very deep to hunt the squids they eat. In the coast of Mazarrón (Spain) they find the environment they need with deep waters near the seaside and that is why there is a resident population here.

     Globicephala melas is a predominantly offshore specie with a preference for deep waters seaward of the continental shelf and slope in all areas of occurrence in the Mediterranean (Gannier 1995, Raga and Pantoja 2004, Cañadas et al. 2005, Azzelino et al. 2008). Preferred habitats are generally deeper than 500 m (mean of 849 m, SD = 281, range 207–1,800 m) with intermediate slopes in the Alborán Sea (Cañadas et al. 2002, Cañadas et al. 2005).

The species is regarded as predominantly a squid-eater, but they also feed at least occasionally on pelagic fish (Relini and Garibaldi 1992, Cañadas et al. 2002 and references therein, Olson and Reilly 2002).

        Long-finned Pilot Whales are highly social, with a social structure similar to that of Killer Whales (Olson and Reilly 2002, de Stephanis 2007). Average group sizes in the Alborán Sea (30.3, SE = 2.19; Cañadas et al. 2005) and the Ligurian Sea (30.6, SE = 4.34, S. Airoldi, pers. comm.) are much larger than in other surveyed parts of the Mediterranean: 14 for the Strait of Gibraltar (de Stephanis 2007), 12 for the Tyrrhenian Sea (Di Natale 1982), 10 for the central and northwestern Mediterranean (SE = 1.33; Notarbartolo di Sciara et al. 1993) and 11 for the east coast of Spain (Raga and Pantoja 2004). Opportunistic sightings gave the highest average group size for the Alborán Sea in summer (23.4) compared to the rest of the Mediterranean and the NE Atlantic (9.5) (McBrearty et al. 1986). http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/16376479/0