The Fair Earth Foundation - Volunteering Whales & ​ Dolphins 2024

Tenerife remains our core operating base where we continue to run the volunteer programme on the whale watching boats and to develop our own rib based research work (interspecies communication) as we have done for some 35 years. Our datasets and experience are second to none.

Other locations

• Blue Whales: Sri Lanka - November - March 2024
• Hump back whales: August - November 2024 - Sao Tome, Brazil, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone

The programme runs throughout the year and we aim to keep a core team of 10-15 volunteers from around the world at any one time at our base in Arona. We only want serious people and acceptance to this programme will be via personal interviews. Volunteers have direct access to mentors in areas of research, conservation and education. We will accept up to two volunteers at any one time FREE of charge but they must demonstrate a real contribution to our on-going work.

There are two key volunteer tasks on the whale watching boats:

• Monitoring and researching resident Pilot Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins, and 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. The  goal in 2019 is to contribute 1,000,000 signatures to the Avaaz’ on-line petition on Plastic Pollution, to be presented to the United Nations at the end of the year.

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 eco-tourism activities and volunteer participation is one way in which we can help support the activity providers.The AWdF’s eco-tourism team will 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.

• Research
• Eco Tourism
• Creative

Project Dates

This project runs throughout the year with start dates every Sunday.