Why do we research?

Our team recently received the question on what drives us to contribute to cetacean research the way we do and why we seemingly can’t get a break from whales even though we work with them daily. To answer this question, I went on a little quest where talked to all our guides and compiled all their answers in this blog. Through this post I want to share appreciation for the entire team and highlight the love they have for the field they work in. It puts together the thoughts of our entire guide team, all of which also make part of our research team. Each of them contributes through photo-ID, behavioural analysis and many more! 

Communicating science 

As naturalists, we find ourselves on the middle ground between hardcore academics and the scientific layperson. Most of us are scientists, which means we’ve built the knowledge to understand and interpret the language of academic science. Every day a vast amount of scientific information gets published, but due to the complexity of the topics and vocabulary used it often becomes hard for people to grasp what exactly is going on. This means many interesting topics might just not make it into the general public. We however, are in close contact with people from all over the world, coming from all backgrounds, on a day to day basis. We take them out to sea to show the magic of whales and tell them stories about these creatures. This unique position gives us an opportunity to close the gap. We can share scientific information through tales and ultimately make it become more available and understandable to a broader crowd. On a more personal note, it allows us to shamelessly talk about our passion to others. More importantly though: we do believe if people have a greater understanding of nature, they will respect and appreciate it more. Ultimately, this can only benefit the protection of nature itself. If people understand the wild, they'll save the wild. 

Image 1: Our guide Sam sharing her whale tales!

Contributing to science  

We are also very happy to help out people working in academics. During our tours we collect an incredible amount of information. Things like photos, presence of species/individuals and behaviour we collect naturally each tour in the form of diaries and the complementary pictures. To any scientist, this data can be incredibly valuable as often the amount of time and money they can spend on field work is rather limited. All of us have a sense of duty where we feel the need to contribute our data to science and help grow science’s understanding of our dear cetaceans. When working on our own projects we hope to be able to publish something that might be valuable enough for us to leave our mark in science or, at the minimum, keep that scientific part of our brain we trained so hard active.   

Image 2: Our guide Anna snapping the perfect shot!

Improving our craft 

Through our research projects we are always learning something new. This way we can stay up to date with the latest developments in cetacean research, but also with what goes on in our bay. This means we can keep delivering the most recent and best information to our passengers while taking them on a more personal journey. We can share all we’ve learned and through each person unique interests, create a more individual touch in our work. Providing detailed and up to date information about the whales we are seeing at a certain moment allows us to take our work to the next level while showing care for both nature and our craft. 

Image 3: A breach!

Personal connection 

For many of us it also resonates on a more personal level. Studying the whales allows us to connect more with these animals that we see every day. Whether it is through keeping track of the ones we see, learning more about their behaviours or even detect individual quirks. All these bits of information are as valuable to science as they are to us personally. We are curious and wonder why an individual might behave in a certain way. We might feel for them when we see them hurt or scarred, making us want to find out how or why. Doing this year after year allows us to have a deep understanding and connection to these creatures, making it possible to notice even subtle changes in behaviour or demography. Ultimately, this allows us to become part of their world ever so slightly. 

But above all else, the mind of a biologist is a curious one and wanting to know more comes to us by nature! 

Milan vansteelandt 

Image 4: our guide team at Iceland's premier of David Attenborough's "Ocean" documentary!