June 15, 2010
Arrival at Almerimar (Almeria)
After leaving Cape Nao behind, in Valencia, we no longer feel the North wind that was with us since we set sail from Sagunto. The crossing to Almeria has been very quiet, too quiet. We’ve barely seen any cetaceans, although we’ve seen plenty of trawlers and deployed nets, especially abundant in the waters of Valencia and Almeria, as we’ve seen so far along the way.
A solitary striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) was with us this morning, in Murcian waters, in front of Aguilas. Later, in Almeria, some seagulls and a group of roughly five bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were chasing a trawler, expecting some of the marine richness that is getting more and more difficult to find and which these vessels throw overboard, dead or dying, selecting only what is most valuable to them.