Who are you, and what is the name of your institute?
I’m Laura González García, a marine biologist and oceanographer from Galicia (Spain), and living in the Azores for more than 15 years. In 2010 I joined as an intern Futurismo Azores Adventures, a family-owned purpose-driven tourism company in the Azores, whose core business is whale-watching. After working with them for several seasons, in 2019 I got my PhD from the University of Vigo based on cetacean ecology and distribution in the Atlantic and mainly in the Azores. Over the last three years, I’ve been working as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of the Azores and currently, I’m back at Futurismo Azores Adventures coordinating the Scientific and Technical department. The company has always supported cetacean data collection at sea, and especially in recent years, has supported several Bachelor and Master students (and at the moment also the first PhD student!), who take advantage of the data collected during the trips to conduct their dissertations and internships projects. Additionally, data collected has been shared with national and international researchers under defined agreements with the main purpose of better understanding cetaceans of the Atlantic.
What type of data does your institute produce, how is it produced, and in which regions do you operate?
Futurismo Azores Adventures is committed to collecting cetacean occurrence data during commercial whale-watching (WW) trips conducted in the Azores. The company started to collect this information opportunistically in 2006, and most regularly since 2008. Most of the trips are conducted from São Miguel Island, lasting around 3h, and twice per day when possible. Most recently, some data have been occasionally collected from Pico Island too. To find cetaceans, the same technique used by the whalers is used nowadays, i.e., professional observers working with powerful binoculars from strategic points on land. They search for the animals before the boats go out, and then pilot the boats via radio to the animal’s location. Once there, the qualified biologists onboard record the data related to the sighting, including location, date and time, cetacean species, and when possible, number of individuals, presence of adults, juveniles and calves, behaviour, sea state and visibility, and any other comments relevant to the sighting. Some of these sightings are also supported by photographs valid for photo identification. Until 2018, this information has been gathered on paper, and manually introduced into Excel files, leading to human errors both at the time of writing at sea and at the time of writing on the computer. Data collected is therefore cetacean “only presence” data collected from opportunistic platforms of observation (i.e., whale-watching).
How will your project add value to existing data flows?
The project proposed will provide a huge quantity of cetacean records collected in a cetacean hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic. It will provide a long-term dataset, able to be also maintained or extended in the future. In the Azores, there are several cetacean species sighted year-round and others that are migratory or just sighted occasionally around the archipelago. This dataset will thus provide further insights about any potential changes in species occurrence and distribution, which is of particular importance when thinking about the current scenario of global change. The current data will largely complement other datasets already available online for the same region, such as the ones providing information collected from fishing boats (POPA – Programa de Observação para as Pescas dos Açores), or from other whale-watching companies working in four of the nine islands of the archipelago (MONICET project).
What is the expected impact of your proposed project?
There are several perspectives on how this project may have an impact. First, this is an excellent opportunity to make available a long-term dataset of cetacean occurrence data to the wider community, including scientists, but not only. Making publicly available all this information, following international standards for biodiversity data, will foster the usability of this kind of data. It will likely raise some new topics of study, leveraging new perspectives or new ideas to make the most of this only-presence cetacean dataset. Secondly, applying as a tourism company is a way of reinforcing the importance of collaboration between tourism and science. This project has confirmed that the work done opportunistically over the years by so many people, sometimes without a defined or achievable goal, is definitely worth it. It supposes a way of triggering and enhancing data collection and research by whale-watching platforms in the Azores and beyond, and encouraging others to join forces and collaborate with science and conservation. We do believe that this will set new foundations to develop further collaborations.
How will this involvement or opportunity enhance your institute's capacity?
As said previously, as a tourism company this is a great achievement. Research and science were not always a priority for the company, but they have gained relevance, particularly over the last few years. The long-term commitment and the support to data collection held over the years pays now off, as a way of recognition of the good work. For sure, it will encourage maintaining and improving current practices of data collection; and hopefully will create new opportunities to develop further collaborations between Science and Tourism. From a more pragmatic perspective, this project allows to retain some young talents within the company; young students with great potential to support further steps not only to work on the data already collected but also to improve current methodologies and engage upcoming staff members on a reliable process. The involvement in this project is a way of adding credibility to the process, looking for further opportunities to keep moving forward and encouraging new people (within the company and abroad) to promote and maintain these good practices over time.