On Sunday 3rd of April, Associació Cetàcea carried out the first sighting survey of the current season of the Photo-Identification Project: Whales and dolphins along the Catalan coast from the harbour of Vilanova I la Geltrú. The start of the season had been cancelled three times due to bad weather conditions. However, the first sighting survey was carried out last Sunday together with two other entities, Depana and Acoio.

Associació Cetàcea started the Photo-Identification Project: Whales and dolphins along the Catalan coast in 2014 in order to expand the actual knowledge about the cetacean species visiting the central Catalan coast. The project is based on the Photo-identification, which allows the recognition of individuals using the unique physical characteristics of each of them. Associacó Cetàcea has been gathering information and photographs on the different species of cetaceans sighted in the area since the beginning of the project and has developed two photo-identification catalogues, one focused on the bottlenose dolphin and the other on the Risso’s dolphin.

The three entities that took part on last Sunday’s trip enjoyed a day at sea during which they could see two different species of dolphins, striped and bottlenose dolphins, two fin whales and a great variety of sea birds. Photographs of the dorsal fins of bottlenose dolphins ere taken during the survey, which will be a good addition to the photo-identification catalogue..