The Success of Peniche

The fay after we arrive at Peniche was going to be windy and so we decided to rest and sort out the Marina place. Telma was leaving as well, so I decided to stay in Port. The Marina problem was sorted very easily. I was told by the port officials to go to "Clube Naval" of Peniche and ask for a place on the inside of the Marina. There I talked to Sra. Antonieta who was simply impeccable. She did all she could to find us a better place, and eventually did. So, in the middle of the afternoon, we moved to a place where we could have an electric plug guaranteed. I also took the chance to buy some stuff I needed for the boat,namely a new mooring cable for the stern of the boat, and a new stern light that was stolen from us in Porto Marina. The rest of the day was pretty much spent resting. Next day me and Pedro would be going out to try and start sampling. We had done it before, so we would do it again.

Next day we went out with nice weather and some mild wind. The number of herring gulls lying in the waters outside the port was impressive. Herring gulls nest in Berlengas, and due to the lack of predator their numbers grew exponentially. They are now considered a plague in Peniche, but all efforts to contain their numbers have been largely unsuccessful. We set course to a place were me and 1st mate saw dolphins when coming up. When we were approaching that point I went to the bow and started looking for dolphins.Soon, a groups of 5 was in sight, right in the exact same place we saw them earlier! I prepare the gear to start sampling. I waited patiently for my chance. I soon get a clean shot and fire a perfect one... a perfect sample was coming on the dart! I process the sample and prepare for the second shot. Again, success! Things were looking good. By lunch time we had collected 4 samples. However we lost the dolphins and we decided to have lunch while searching for them further West.

Pedro taking the helm with Farilhões in sight, one of the islands that are part of Berlengas archipelago.

Close-up of Farilhões

At some point I decided to come back closer to shore and found dolphins pretty much in the same place we left them. "So that's where they were!!" I commented. I restarted sampling. Shot after shot I was getting some perfect samples and dolphins didn't seem to mind at all. At some point the wind increased slightly, but we were doing so good that I didn't even realized it. We stopped at 9 samples and only because I didn't want to risk and make the dolphins suspicious. It was hard for me to believe, after all the difficulties we faced in Porto and Figueira, that this was going so smoothly. In the end, I started taking pictures of their dorsal fins to add to our catalogue.


Every time a crew member comes back to Clavadel, I feel a cycle is complete. On one hand it's like, the experience was good enough for them to want to come back, and on the other is like Clavadel is starting to build is own stable crew. It happened first with Zé and Nef, coming back this year after last year work, and this year with Telma and Ana. The first day we sampled Zé came back again for the third time, making him the most regular and stable crewmember. In the end of the week, 1st mate would be coming back as well for a week to help with fieldwork. There are happy days in the life of a dolphin researcher after all!!!!! :)

When I told Zé I had just came back from the first day with 9 samples he couldn't beleive it. "That means..." "Yes!" I stopped him "It's the record of the most samples obtained in a single day since the beginning of the project! And all in the first day we went out in a given place.". "Man, we're going to finish Peniche in no time!". "Don't celebrate before the end, we still have 20 more to collect." I advised cautiously. I learned not to be too optimistic al in this work, it is most likely that you'll end up deeply frustrated!



Second day of sampling in Peniche was definitely the toughest, but also the most rewarding. Although we started out with good weather, the threatening front we were seeing n the horizon soon approached us. We were still able to get a couple of samples before it reached us, but Berlengas were soon covered. "Is that fog or rain?" I asked Zé. "I think it's fog". "Shit!!! I think it's rain... I hope it's rain!".


It was rain indeed, and soon we had only a couple of miles of visibility. Mild rain soon became pouring rain and my trousers were soon soaked. Dolphins were around though, and I couldn't afford the luxury of stopping. Aiming was harder than ever. I had to keep my sunglasses to eliminate the reflection of the water and aim more effectively, but that meant that, besides my best efforts, they were soon soaked as well. Adding to that, the drops of rain falling in the sea, made the surface fuzzy and so hard to spot the dolphins. At sample number 8, I decided to change my trousers for the waterproof ones. Back in business, I was now the only one staying on the bow. At some point I started hearing some loud screams. As I look up to see what it was, I see a small RIB full of people all hysterical because of the dolphins. What was a small boat like that venturing so far out to sea in a day like that. I was already a bit upset to have to sample in that weather, so having a boat nearby really was the last thing I wanted. I effusively "ask" them to leave, which they did. Not sure if because of me, but it worked anyway! I stopped at 11 samples! It was the absolute record of samples obtained on one day. As we were coming back, weather started to improve until it was sunny again! Zé commented "This is just so that people in port will look at us and think: look how lucky those guys are, going out on a sailing boat in such a great weather like this!!!". It was ironic that rain had started exactly in the moment we started sampling, and cleared when we finished.


The two successful says meant we only needed 10 more samples before we could leave Peniche. Given our first days, I was becoming increasingly more confident it was possible. I went to bed early to save my strengths for the next day. It would be a decisive one. A successfull day meant we could still move to Sines and try and complete sampling there before the end of August. It would also turn this into a highly successful fieldseason, irrespectively of how many samples we were able to collect in Sines.

The next day I wake up early but only to find the port covered in fog. In the present conditions, no wind meant a front was passing through and fog was likely to settle. My hopes were being shattered. We waited far a while for the fog the lift but it was proving hard. We chated about almost everything to distract us from the waiting. Eventually we got tired and I reckoned the fog was lifting. Zé agreed so I just decided to leave. If it was too bad, we could always come back. As we left port the fog wasn't much better, but we could navigate safely. However, as soon as we crossed cape Carvoeiro, the fog lifted and we were facing the most calm sea with a deep blue sky above. We were ready to start sampling. Little by little, the number of samples increased. I had to be careful not to sample the same individuals twice, as I could recognize them and see them surfacing in my line of sight. Eventually there was only one left. I aim... I get a clear shot... and I shoot. "Done!!! Sample number 30 from Peniche is done. Let's go home!" Dolphins kept bowriding, so we took pictures of their fins. Eventually we were done, and I took the chance to just watch the dolphins bowriding. As I leaned on the bow, I could hear them vocalize and I wondered what could those sounds mean!

We were done. In 3 days, me Pedro and Zé collected all the samples we needed from Peniche. Nice weather, dolphins exhibiting the perfect behaviour and the new sampling system allowed us to do the most successful sampling ever since the beginning of this work. The only thing that crossed my mind then was the famous quote by Winston Churchill:

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire... Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job."

Final days in Figueira

Contrary to our best hopes, Figueira proved a very tough place to sample. The weather did not get better... in fact it got worse! The day after Neftalí left new volunteers arrived,at 1100 sharp. All three of them came from Vertigem, Pedro Neves, Alexia Pereira and Bárbara Sepodas. Pedro will stay until the end of the fieldseason, while Bárbara and Alexia would stay for a couple of weeks, but unfortunately for them, the weather was stopping us from going out to sea. Later, Marcela Velasco came from the Netherlands to join us for a few days. She works at ITC on her masters thesis and heard about the project from Neftalí. There were still a few days until we were able to go out to sea. The day was not promising, but we hoped to have a breach in the morning. We went out, saw some dolphins, but weren't able to sample. The animals just wouldn't approach the boat. The waves soon got bigger and just became impossible to work in, so we headed back. The rest of the day would be again free for everyone to do what they wanted. However, at the end of the afternoon, bad luck struck the project again. After the bumpy ride back home, Bárbara was not feeling good with a seasickness that wouldn't go away. She decided to leave, and Alexia decided she could not leave her friend behind, so left as well. The crew was down to Marcela and Pedro. We were able to get out a few days but weather was just rubbish.

Pedro Neves

Marcela Velasco

Marcela soon left, and even though she saw some dolphins, she didn't see any sampling! Marcela was then replaced by Céline Madeira, who is working for her masters in the University of Algarve in flatfish genetics. Céline proved a worthy crew and finnally she helped us in getting a few more very important samples. We decided that we could not wait for good weather to work and we just had to go out as long as it was safe. we eventually were able to get some samples everyday (even if just one or two), and take some very important pictures. During these days, we saw several thing that comfirmed out fears that pressure from fishermen in these water was very strong. More than once we saw fishing cables drifting in the sea (we collected the ones we could, others were just too heavy), and we saw the dramatic effects these could have on wildlife. One Gannet could not fly because it was entangled in one of them. There was nothing we could do, and it would soon die from starvation!

Céline Madeira

Unfortunately, Céline had to leave early due to family issues. It was up to me and Pedro to get the samples needed, and those days were very tough. On on of these days we were again surprised by fog, and ended up searching for dolphins in the middle of the fog! We did get them however, at a rate of 2-3 a day. The last day might be remembered as one of the toughest! High waves, dark clouds hovering low in the sky, and even though we saw one of the biggest groups in the season we could only get two samples. What we saw was amazing though... hundreds of dolphins hunting a massive school of fish, with even more hundreds of birds flying above and diving one after the others, like Japanese Kamikaze fighters. Some of the smaller Petrels were so full of fish that they were unable to lift off of the water when we crossed them with the boat. In the end, however, we got more samples than from Porto, which was quite remarkable given all the difficulties we faced. We were getting on the limit of time we could stay in Figueira. We still had Peniche to sample and time was running out. Given how hard sampling was until now, the prognostic was not good. We would need the time to complete sampling in Peniche!

Two day before we were planning to sail South, Telma sent a message asking if we needed help. In the next day she joined us for the crossing. The forecast was high waves (2-4 m high) and strong North wind. Nortada was finally playing in our favour. And it did indeed! In the day we set out to go South, I wake up at 0400 and suddenly realized I had forget to pay for the marina. I go to the marina reception to see the time they opened, but in the best Portuguese style, there was nothing there. I walk to the police station that registers all the boats to ask "It opens at 0900!". Crap!!! I wanted to leave early and now I can only leave at around 0930 maximum. Well, if it gets too late we'll just stop in Nazaré. We were hoisting sails at 1000 which was much later than we were planning! However, Nortada was making us go really fast, and we never went below 6 knots. Waves were tall and wide, gently pushing towards our destination, while dolphins followed us for most of the time. Soon we had Farilhões in sight and then Berlenga, both part of the Berlengas archipelago. At 1800 we were crossing cape Carvoeiro doing 8 knots!


At 1900 we arrived in Peniche Marina after topping 9 knots in the bay before the port. The Marina was so crowded though, that we had to moor to another boat. In the end we were unable to plug the boat to a power source, which was most unfortunate. Stable isotope samples have to be frozen all the time, and I can only guarantee that if I plug into the marina everyday to feed the freezers. Next day I would have to sort that out!

Sampling in Figueira

The next day we set out to try and sample some dolphins, or if not, at least detect the area were they usually hang around. We didn't leave to early as we still had to lower the dingy, and do some routine maintenance to the engine. We headed to around 4-5 miles off cape Mondego and then North to the area were we had seen dolphins the day before. However, at around lunch time, and besides our best efforts, we saw blue sharks (two of them), harbour porpoises, a dead dolphin (quite rotten and smelly, or so I was told!), each other, and lots of ocean. But no dolphins!

Looking for dolphins in the "desperate" position. This means getting a high viewpoint to get the longest range possible. I call it "desperate" as we usually don't really need to get there to find the animals, unless we are really desperate!

Finally a dolphin... not very healthy though!!! Because it was so rotten, I didn't took a sample. However, Rus (my supervisor and head of the lab) advised "Remember that project were we got DNA from 10.000 years old dolphins? Always worth to get a sample!". Well, next time!

As the day progressed we eventually found some dolphins, but our encounter was brief. They were not interested in the boat at all, and we soon lost it. I'm not very used to common dolphins avoiding boats, especially big and slow ones, so I started wondering if we were going to see a repetition of Porto, with animals extremely weary of boats. We kept our search but without results. Eventually, boredom started to settle in, aided by some tiredness from the long day yesterday.

Karis and Ben accusing the long day between Porto and Figueira. We were all a bit like that to some extent!

I decided to call it a day.We had confirm that dolphins could be seen in that area and we all needed some rest. We would try again next day.However, this wasn't any better. Pretty much the only dolphin we saw was a dead dolphin... again. This one was fresh though, and we approached to take a sample. We soon realized it was not alone, but was being eaten by 4 hungry blue sharks that fled as we approached in the dingy. Not very brave I would say (private joke to Ana! :) )!

As we approached we saw the side of the dolphin was heavily scared and I assumed the sharks did t while trying to eat the carcass. The dolphin revealed to be a male, and had the throat almost all eaten by the sharks, as well as part of the melon. We took a sample and on our way. However, no dolphins were seen this time. The wind soon increased and we headed back on sail. Figueira was proving hard to master!

Note the scars on the side of the yellow patch.

Looking at the genital area we can see it's a male. Females have additional two smaller slits on each side, corresponding to the mammary glands. They are, after all, mammals!

We hoped for better days ahead, but really we were in for even worse. The next day, as we got out we realized the weather was absolutely rubbish! Wind, clouds, cold! Karis and Ben were asking were was the gorgeous Portuguese summer I told them about... "Well, you must have brought the weather with you from the UK! It's the only explanation I can find!" I replied joking. As this was Ben's last day, I decided to hoist sails and enjoy some good quality sailing. In the end the weather was only rubbish to sample, not to sail! The funniest part of the day was seeing Karis ferociously fighting the sail as she tried to hoist it!!!

Karis fighting the sail. She was victorious in the end!!!

Karis also started to do steering and was the replaced to Ben. Ben proved an very good helmsman and we were soon doing almost 7 knots under his steering. Apparently, the fact he used to do car racing was the secret (private joke to Karis! :) )!

Next day we took Ben to the train station really early and went out to sea. The weather was not brilliant, but the wind had decreased slightly so we might have a chance. Just 3 miles of port finally, dolphins... lots of them! "Ben left the wrong day" I commented! However, seeing them and getting a sample were different matters.We got in the dingy after a few pictures and started approaching them to try and get a sample. They bowride for a while but soon became suspicious of the pole. After a while they were avoiding the boat altogether, and suddenly, for no apparent reason the all positioned themselves in a long line and starting swimming faster than I had ever seen a dolphin swim,jumping several meters above the water as they came out to breathe. In a few seconds, they were gone! I had never seen dolphins react like this!!! It was even worse than in Porto!

The only picture we were able to get from the dolphins fleeing

At this point it was clear that weary dolphins and bad weather was going to be the norm here in Figueira, so we dedicated the next few days to work on a method that would allow us to sample from Clavadel in the less intrusive way possible. We had to use the rifle, as the pole just tended to scare the animals.This meant we had to develop a method to recover the dart once it was fired. Recovering it with a net was impractical (as we saw last year) so it had some kind of line attached to it. After trying a few methods (shooting at the water and not dolphins obviously!) we came up with a simple on that looked good. The next day we tried the experimental design. We were obviously nervous as too if it would work, and we got ready when we saw dolphins. It was a small groups but it was somewhat comfortable by the boat. We fire the first shot... success!!! One sample on the dart. We get ready for another chance. We wait as to not sample the same individual again. We get our shot and... success again! The method seems to work. The only problem was, as for know, we needed two people to do it. We have to manage and get it to work single handed. Next day we got up early and went to a fishing shop just by the marina (ProShop Pesca). The person we talked too was extremely helpful and we got a really good system very cheap.

The first day we tried to do it we didn't' get any samples. We found a very good group that readily approached Clavadel and started bowriding. However,as soon as we got into the dingy they disappeared. "How can we loose 20 dolphins that were bowriding?" I asked Karis! I couldn't believe it. There is something in the dingy that dolphins from Figueira just don't like!!! Next day we know what to do, just don't get into the singy. However, the sea wasn't helping and it was too windy,so we had to come back. It was unfortunate, as it was Esther's last day.She was leaving to Cape Verde to work on marine turtles. As we were saying goodbye to her, she made the best suggestion ever. Next year, in these same two weeks they would all come on board together again.I thought it was a great idea!!!


Next day was a different matter though. Weather was brillinat, with literally no wind. We found a group but didn't get in the dingy. The first shots were a success, and in the first day we got 5 samples! The method works brilliantly and we don't need to get into the dingy allowing for a much more comfortable sampling. We were feeling very confident now. This was also the day we say good bye to Karis, as she was leaving back to Durham. It was also the day she took some of the most amazing pictures from this fieldseason.


Next day was just me and Neftalí, and was the last day that Neftalí would stay. We were confident as the forecast was the same as the day before, this is, almost no wind. However, we soon got the clear demonstration that forecast are just predictive models. The day was windy, rainy, cold, and miserable. We could still cruise at around 4.5 knots so we decided to keep going. We had to really, as we need more samples. We soon found a group of dolphins and I got ready. Two samples in no time, in spite of being short handed and the sea conditions quite bad. The new system really does work. However, the day was really bad to spot dolphins at a distance, and given that I had to process the samples and Neftalí had to steer at the same time he had to watch the dolphins, it was easy for us to loose them, what eventually happened. We still circled the area, but the weather was just getting worse. We decided to head back, but were happy given we were able to get more samples in such difficult conditions.

Neftallí left the same day and I was alone. The next day the new complete crew was arriving and I could sleep as late as i could for the first time since fieldwork began. This was most fortunate, as I really needed the rest. As for now, me and the new crew are staying in port waiting for the wind to weaken a bit. Nortada as settled in again in full strength, an today we had over 20 knots of wind inside the marina, that is usually protected from the North wind. I don't want to imagine how strong it was beyond cape Mondego!