Atlantic Whale Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Atlantic Whale Foundation, (AWF) is a conservation charity founded in London
, England
and based in Arona
, Tenerife
. Its motto is "The responsibility to defend nature belongs to each of us – as individuals".
Founded in 1995 in London, England, the Atlantic Whale Foundation is a non profit, volunteer run organisation, and is funded mainly by the volunteers and public donations. Outside Tenerife, there are many affiliated projects around the world, dealing not only with conservation, but also humanitarian work, restoration, environmental and teaching based projects.
The AWF’s slogan
is “Encouraging individuals to make a difference through positive action within communities, the environment and in nature, globally. “ This ideal is being realised via the Earth Ambassadors.
Launched 2004 the Earth Ambassadors aim to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and “inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and we help them in their work”.
, London, WC2H 4JS. It was founded to continue the work of Spanish environmental agency, Proyecto Ambiental Tenerife and works primarily towards helping to make Tenerife’s whale watching
industry a global example of best practice. Activities revolve around education, conservation and research initiatives. The charity is volunteer led and funded via donations.
, Tenerife
. This facility is a charming old Canarian farm house which can accommodate approximately twenty people, most of whom will be co-ordinators or project leaders and Earth Ambassadors passing through. Volunteers work five days per week, which is divided between three or four days spent on the whale watching boats operating out of Los Gigantes
, Los Cristianos
and Playa las Americas and the rest of their time in the resource centre processing data, working on their particular project and assisting where their skills lend best.
On the boats they assist our research guides in carrying out our research work and in handing out and talking through educational materials with the on-board tourists. They also integrate with the crew on a professional basis doing everything from helping to clean up, serve food and act as research guides.
Volunteer areas include; Research
, Art
, Educational Workshops, Fundraising
, Media
, Photography
, Film
, Internet Marketing
, Conservation Initiatives, International Developments and Strategic Management. Volunteers are encouraged to find a project within one or more of these categories and to work on this during their stay.
through raising awareness about cetaceans in captivity by educating the millions of passing tourists in Tenerife about the threats they face. These threats include; living in a chemically treated water environment, which can damage their skin
and eye
s and lead to chlorine poisoning and death
, pneumonia
, intestinal disease, ulcers
, and other stress-related illnesses, including suspected suicide
. Further threats are from the incorrect administration or insufficient knowledge of cetacean veterinary medicine
. Additionally, the ingestion of foreign objects, such as coins, litter and small toys which may enter their pools is a problem particularly in petting pools.
The AWF has been campaigning for years through an online petition
to stop the Japanese and their allies from wresting control of the IWC
(International Whaling Commission) from the hands of the conservationists. They believe that this will result in a large scale resumption of the great whales at a time when many of these species and facing the possibility of extinction.
and provide effective funding methods to sustain these projects.
The main aim of the Earth Ambassadors is to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and to inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and help them in their work.
and animal welfare
related projects. This database was created to link people, like the AWF volunteers, to others who want to make a difference to volunteer opportunities all over the world. It was created by the Atlantic Whale Foundation’s volunteers looking for other volunteering projects that are liberating and life changing.
This database can be freely searched for a wide variety of affordable projects from saving the rainforests to researching humpback whales, restoring historical buildings to guarding turtle nesting beaches during the hatching season. In addition to volunteer opportunities they hope to help identify resource and funding needs that individuals or communities can help with and campaigning possibilities for individual projects.
The Earth Ambassador Programme will consolidate in Sri Lanka
and visit a range of targeted countries to further develop the programme. Plans include Earth Ambassador visits to: Ecuador
, Suriname
, Argentina
, Madagascar
, Indonesia
, Romania
, Vietnam
and India
, as well as identifying grassroots projects in other countries through their various networks.
Funding Programmes: In Sri Lanka
they are now in a position to increase their fundraising capacity, both in terms of developing funding for core programmes and in identifying collaborators for specific projects such as tree planting initiatives and global resource centres
Volunteering: they intend to consolidate the Tenerife volunteer programme as an example of ‘best practice’; and develop volunteer programmes in Sri Lanka; and initiate (also in Sri Lanka) the construction of a locally driven Community Resource Centre which, with volunteer accommodation attached, will drive local projects in a sustainable way.
D Nome Project they will develop research initiatives around the central concept of ‘talking with animals’ as a critical way of drawing people’s attention to the wonder of nature
and, once achieved, to the need for all to take an individual responsibility for taking action. The focus will be on children and the development of children’s educational programmes based on the work they do. Initial research works will be with Dolphins (Tenerife) and Elephants (Sri Lanka) although the D.Nome project will become a central resource for projects working with animal communication globally- fascinating and hopefully inspirational stuff. There will be great emphasis on multimedia
techniques in the communication
of conservation issues.
Tenerife, as the core volunteer programme, will be consolidating its work in Tenerife as a focus of best practice and building it into a hub for a growing and global network of projects. Core objectives this year will be to publish quality books on the Pilot Whales of Tenerife (possibly also bottlenose dolphins of Los Gigantes) in collaboration with Sergio Hanquet and incorporating the results of their photo identification work over the past twelve years. Also, they will be using this new database to facilitate interactive multimedia technology on key whale watching boats so individual and family details of whales identified from their fins whilst whale watching can be instantly displayed on board boats. Further, they will also be developing a local charity as an adjunct of AWF to facilitate fundraising in Tenerife. Finally, and as a core activity, they will be creating an eco-tourist web site for the island linking rural properties, local tourist assets such as bars, restaurants, museums etc with whale watching
boats and other nature or cultural pursuits.
WhaleNation will progress by linking ethical whale watching eco-tourism around the world and a global resource for research, festivals, conservation, and research initiatives into cetaceans.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and based in Arona
Arona
-Places:Italy*Arona, Piedmont, a town in the Province of NovaraSpain*Arona, Tenerife, a municipality in the Canary IslandsUnited States*Arona, Pennsylvania-Persons:*Danilo Arona, Italian writer* Ricardo Arona, Brazilian mixed martial artist...
, Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
. Its motto is "The responsibility to defend nature belongs to each of us – as individuals".
Founded in 1995 in London, England, the Atlantic Whale Foundation is a non profit, volunteer run organisation, and is funded mainly by the volunteers and public donations. Outside Tenerife, there are many affiliated projects around the world, dealing not only with conservation, but also humanitarian work, restoration, environmental and teaching based projects.
The AWF’s slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
is “Encouraging individuals to make a difference through positive action within communities, the environment and in nature, globally. “ This ideal is being realised via the Earth Ambassadors.
Launched 2004 the Earth Ambassadors aim to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and “inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and we help them in their work”.
Profile
The Atlantic Whale Foundation is a British registered charity (Number 1076270), registered office: St Martins House, 59 St Martins Lane, Covent GardenCovent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, London, WC2H 4JS. It was founded to continue the work of Spanish environmental agency, Proyecto Ambiental Tenerife and works primarily towards helping to make Tenerife’s whale watching
Whale watching
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat. Whales are watched most commonly for recreation but the activity can also serve scientific or educational purposes. A 2009 study, prepared for IFAW, estimated that 13 million people went whale watching...
industry a global example of best practice. Activities revolve around education, conservation and research initiatives. The charity is volunteer led and funded via donations.
Volunteer Work
The core volunteer programme runs throughout the year in the research station in AronaArona
-Places:Italy*Arona, Piedmont, a town in the Province of NovaraSpain*Arona, Tenerife, a municipality in the Canary IslandsUnited States*Arona, Pennsylvania-Persons:*Danilo Arona, Italian writer* Ricardo Arona, Brazilian mixed martial artist...
, Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
. This facility is a charming old Canarian farm house which can accommodate approximately twenty people, most of whom will be co-ordinators or project leaders and Earth Ambassadors passing through. Volunteers work five days per week, which is divided between three or four days spent on the whale watching boats operating out of Los Gigantes
Los Gigantes
Los Gigantes is a resort town in the Santiago del Teide municipality on the west coast of the Canary Island Tenerife. Its main feature are the giant rock formations, Acantilados de Los Gigantes, that rise from the sea to a height of 500-800 metres after which the town has been named...
, Los Cristianos
Los Cristianos
Los Cristianos is a town in Spain with a population of approximately 19,000 , situated on the south coast of the Canary Island of Tenerife. Located in the municipality of Arona between the cone of the mountain Chayofita and the greater mountain Guaza. The town centre is around the Los Cristianos...
and Playa las Americas and the rest of their time in the resource centre processing data, working on their particular project and assisting where their skills lend best.
On the boats they assist our research guides in carrying out our research work and in handing out and talking through educational materials with the on-board tourists. They also integrate with the crew on a professional basis doing everything from helping to clean up, serve food and act as research guides.
Volunteer areas include; Research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, Educational Workshops, Fundraising
Fundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
, Media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
, Photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, Film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Internet Marketing
Internet marketing
Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing of products or services over the Internet...
, Conservation Initiatives, International Developments and Strategic Management. Volunteers are encouraged to find a project within one or more of these categories and to work on this during their stay.
Campaigns and activism
The AWF hopes to see an end to captivityCaptivity (animal)
Animals that live under human care are in captivity. Captivity can be used as a generalizing term to describe the keeping of either domesticated animals or wild animals. This may include for example farms, private homes and zoos...
through raising awareness about cetaceans in captivity by educating the millions of passing tourists in Tenerife about the threats they face. These threats include; living in a chemically treated water environment, which can damage their skin
Skin
-Dermis:The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbors many Mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat...
and eye
Eye
Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors in conscious vision connect light to movement...
s and lead to chlorine poisoning and death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, intestinal disease, ulcers
Peptic ulcer
A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...
, and other stress-related illnesses, including suspected suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Further threats are from the incorrect administration or insufficient knowledge of cetacean veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...
. Additionally, the ingestion of foreign objects, such as coins, litter and small toys which may enter their pools is a problem particularly in petting pools.
The AWF has been campaigning for years through an online petition
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
to stop the Japanese and their allies from wresting control of the IWC
IWC
IWC may refer to:*International WaterCentre, provides education and training, applied research and expert services in integrated water resource management*International Wrestling Cartel, a professional Wrestling company...
(International Whaling Commission) from the hands of the conservationists. They believe that this will result in a large scale resumption of the great whales at a time when many of these species and facing the possibility of extinction.
Earth Ambassadors
As hundreds of incredible people had volunteered with the Atlantic Whale Foundation and its predecessor, Proyecto Ambiental Tenerife, it was possible to create a new project using the best and brightest ex-volunteers. This project works by sending out these individuals to countries of their choice, so that they can identify grassroots projectsGrassroots Projects
Grassroots Projects is a Dutch international charity organisation that helps the oppressed poor. Grassroots Projects started in July 2005 when several social globalists wanted an alternative to the current international charity work. The organisation tries to build up a social alternative...
and provide effective funding methods to sustain these projects.
The main aim of the Earth Ambassadors is to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and to inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and help them in their work.
The World Project Database
The World Project Database is a free online database of international humanitarian, environmentalEnvironment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
and animal welfare
Animal welfare
Animal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights...
related projects. This database was created to link people, like the AWF volunteers, to others who want to make a difference to volunteer opportunities all over the world. It was created by the Atlantic Whale Foundation’s volunteers looking for other volunteering projects that are liberating and life changing.
This database can be freely searched for a wide variety of affordable projects from saving the rainforests to researching humpback whales, restoring historical buildings to guarding turtle nesting beaches during the hatching season. In addition to volunteer opportunities they hope to help identify resource and funding needs that individuals or communities can help with and campaigning possibilities for individual projects.
2008
The Atlantic Whale Foundation sets out to start this year with “clear vision, proven ideas, and strong networks and, critically, funding in place to make things happen.”The Earth Ambassador Programme will consolidate in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and visit a range of targeted countries to further develop the programme. Plans include Earth Ambassador visits to: Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, as well as identifying grassroots projects in other countries through their various networks.
Funding Programmes: In Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
they are now in a position to increase their fundraising capacity, both in terms of developing funding for core programmes and in identifying collaborators for specific projects such as tree planting initiatives and global resource centres
Volunteering: they intend to consolidate the Tenerife volunteer programme as an example of ‘best practice’; and develop volunteer programmes in Sri Lanka; and initiate (also in Sri Lanka) the construction of a locally driven Community Resource Centre which, with volunteer accommodation attached, will drive local projects in a sustainable way.
D Nome Project they will develop research initiatives around the central concept of ‘talking with animals’ as a critical way of drawing people’s attention to the wonder of nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
and, once achieved, to the need for all to take an individual responsibility for taking action. The focus will be on children and the development of children’s educational programmes based on the work they do. Initial research works will be with Dolphins (Tenerife) and Elephants (Sri Lanka) although the D.Nome project will become a central resource for projects working with animal communication globally- fascinating and hopefully inspirational stuff. There will be great emphasis on multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
techniques in the communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
of conservation issues.
Tenerife, as the core volunteer programme, will be consolidating its work in Tenerife as a focus of best practice and building it into a hub for a growing and global network of projects. Core objectives this year will be to publish quality books on the Pilot Whales of Tenerife (possibly also bottlenose dolphins of Los Gigantes) in collaboration with Sergio Hanquet and incorporating the results of their photo identification work over the past twelve years. Also, they will be using this new database to facilitate interactive multimedia technology on key whale watching boats so individual and family details of whales identified from their fins whilst whale watching can be instantly displayed on board boats. Further, they will also be developing a local charity as an adjunct of AWF to facilitate fundraising in Tenerife. Finally, and as a core activity, they will be creating an eco-tourist web site for the island linking rural properties, local tourist assets such as bars, restaurants, museums etc with whale watching
Whale watching
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat. Whales are watched most commonly for recreation but the activity can also serve scientific or educational purposes. A 2009 study, prepared for IFAW, estimated that 13 million people went whale watching...
boats and other nature or cultural pursuits.
WhaleNation will progress by linking ethical whale watching eco-tourism around the world and a global resource for research, festivals, conservation, and research initiatives into cetaceans.