Where you been, Rosie?

Nowhere particularly interesting. And it looks like I am not going anywhere particularly interesting either! Boohoo. No climbing the 12 pins for me. Himself has gone off, rucksack on his back.

A whale of a time I won’t be having one but if you are interested maybe this would be your bag:

The Atlantic Whale Foundation is in the process of recruiting volunteers from across Europe to work on whale watching boats and to help out with the European Festival of the Whale this summer in the Canary Islands. We are sending this information out to organizations and individuals who may have an interest in participating. Please find below details of this summers programme:

The Atlantic Whale Foundations’ aim is to promote environmental awareness and scientific research dedicated primarily to cetaceans and the marine environment but also branching out into other areas. This summer you could help us by joining the team for 1-8 weeks and doing one of the following:

A. Volunteering on the whale watch boats. Volunteers work in one of two areas:- as research guides studying the bottlenose dolphin and pilot whales communities visited and talking with the whale watching tourists; or as children�s animators running on board research and conservation workshops. All volunteers choose which area they wish to focus on and are expected to help in the development of didactic materials interpreting research findings for use on the boats.

B. Volunteering to help run the European Festival of the Whale (July- August 2003). Activities include education workshops, beach activities, attempting Guinness world records, murals and other public art work, organising and running key events such as the Whale and Dolphin Parade and World Music Concert; designing and preparing exhibitions. All volunteers on this programme get to go on the whale watch boats and assist in research gu iding or education al wor kshops.

C. Greening La Hidalga (July- August 2003). Over the summer we will be �greening� La Hidalga, our research base. This will give training and hands on experience in installation of solar panels and windmills to generate heat and lighting together with a number of recycling projects including using grey water for irrigation purposes. All volunteers will be able to assist in this in their down time and those so motivated can work on this project full time.

A maximum number of 200 volunteers from across Europe can be accepted onto the programme next summer so applications should be sent in as early as possible.

Further details may be looked at closer on our website: www.whalefoundation.org.uk (details for application are found under the Volunteering section!) Any Ireland based queries to work with us this summer are to be made to:

atlanticwhalefoundation@europe.com

Please do not hesitate to contact us, we are looking forward to hearing from people with a genuine interest in the environment and having a unique summer with the whales!

Jay McConnell,

Atlantic Whale Foundation. —