Our week started of slow, at fisheries for Sam and Kira and whale watching for Anna and Marta. The whales were very active and putting on a real show, which Sam and Kira got to enjoy from the beach whereas Anna and Marta had to keep a record of it all, with 400+ sightings! We later realised that being marine biologists isn’t all swimming with fish, as we were logging into the late hours of the night (8.30pm).

Tuesday brought us some chilly, UK temperatures with the water temperature dropping to 18 degrees, however we still managed one of our longest dives and completed our transects (built different!).

Wednesday was a very busy day at Paindane fisheries. Although the day started of calm, all the fishermen came back at the same time so we managed a quick gym session by helping them push 8 of their boats back onto the beach! As many of the fish caught by the fishermen looked alike, we then had long debates about what species they were: carpenters or slingers? And this went on to the late hours of the night as well.

Our second day of transects was thankfully carried out in warmer water temperatures, but the visibility declined making the water slightly greenish. Nevertheless we still managed to see a lot of everyone’s favourite, the nudi’s (including some species we’ve never seen before) along with some other creatures, like a sea snake, honeycomb moray and white spotted box fish! Then after hours of logging, to celebrate the (almost) end of the working week we treated ourselves to some lovely Pina Colada’s and some experienced dive stories from Chris (our instructor).

On Friday we were back to whale watching and we were lucky enough to get to go out on the boat and use the hydrophone to listen to the whales! They were being very active with multiple breaches, fin slaps and tail flukes all around us, of which we were able to get nice videos of! Listening to the whales underwater was a great experience and a first for all of us. Friday night was a classic chill Guinjata night, as we were all tired from our packed week, so an early night was on the books.

We started the weekend of with a fun dive at Paindane Express, where we saw a turtle and massive potato bass. Later on we went to swimming lessons, however due to the pool being as green as the ocean, we ended up receiving a great dance lesson from Jaoquina and Bento. As a thank you we taught them the Macarena…