The operational area of the Foundation is principally the land and waters bounded by the North and South Atlantic Oceans although, by necessity, its sphere of operation could be on a global basis.



Objectives 2005



1. European Festival of The Whale: We have agreement to work with Adeje and the main beaches in Playa las Americas as well as in Los Gigantes. Key events will be: The Great Parade; Street Theatre & Entertainment; International Sand Sculpting Competition; Murals etc.



The key theme will be raising awareness of whale and dolphin captivity as a conservation issue and on global extinction- all activities will be geared to this end. Volunteers will be based in the holiday camp in Guaza paying a specially reduced rate but funding the entire programme. The aim is to make this great fun but also to send a message to Europe on captivity and global extinction. A chance to spend a summer making a real difference!



2. The Research Station in Arona was nearly completed this summer and will be finished off and fully equipped over the coming winter. It will become the most valuable, and publicly accessible, cetacean research facility in the Canaries.



3. Resource Centre for the Whale Watching Industry. It is our intent by next summer to make the research station a drop in centre for people within the whale watching industry looking for free educational and design facilities.



4. Bottlenose Dolphins of Los Gigantes. Having created base-line data for the resident bottlenose dolphins we will be deepening our research interests to gain a greater understanding of the social roles and behaviour of individual dolphins. We will also be developing educational materials for use on the dolphin boats based on this research data as well as creating documentary film and stories based on the material. We aim to make Los Gigantes a eco tourism centre of dolphin watching.



5. Green Globe ‘Ethical Whale Watching Accreditation’- we will continue to work with the Green Globe organisation and the Confederation of Whale Watching Boats of Tenerife to develop the world’s first accredited code for ethical whale watching.



6. Developing Eco-Tourism- we will be working with the Confederation of Whale Watching Boats to develop eco-tourism initiatives- in particular: Educational Group Whale Watching; Dolphin Therapy- as an alternative to exploitative swim programmes; Research based whale watching.



7. Captivity and Global Extinction- we will be working with schools, colleges and universities as well as conservation groups to muster a million plus European ‘vote’ on captivity as an issue. In part this will be raise awareness of this conservation issue but additionally it will be to bring attention to the threat of global extinction. Next summer’s volunteer programme and in particular the European Festival of The Whale will be focused on this objective.