There are two key volunteer tasks on the whale watching boats:
- Monitoring and researching resident Short-finned Pilot Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins, as well as migratory species. Our databases span thirty continuous years and contain over 13,000 observations making them amongst the most complete sources of information on cetaceans in the world. Volunteers have used the data for thousands of dissertations from ‘A’ level to PhD.
- Raising awareness of conservation issues with the one million European tourists who see nature at its very best when enjoying their whale watching experience. Our conservation programme is aimed at raising awareness of the devastating impact of plastic pollution on the marine environment.
Research
Guiding on the whale watching boats is only one element of the volunteer experience with the AWdF, taking between 2-4 days of each week depending on each individual volunteer’s level of interest. Other elements include:
Activities
We are keen that our volunteers get the most out of their experience with us and to this end we have organised a wide range of heavily discounted activities that can be combined with their work on the boats. All activities are ethical in so far as they are organised through local professional providers with whom we have enjoyed a long relationship based on mutual trust and respect.
The activities on the link below give an idea of the range of possibilities available. We have many tourism students volunteer with the AWdF to help develop local ecotourism activities and volunteer participation is one way in which we can help support the activity providers.The AWdF’s ecotourism team will guide you on any aspect of each of the listed activities.
Project Contribution
In addition to working on the whale watching boats and getting involved in various activities, we expect ALL volunteers to contribute either as individuals or in small teams to an aspect of our work through getting involved in a project of particular interest to them.
