AIMM - Associação para a Investigação do Meio Marinho

Our programme will give you the opportunity to get to know several species of cetaceans, sharks, sea turtles and marine birds, which occur in the South of Portugal. Namely it will provide you the chance to identify and interpret their behavior, social composition of the group, amongst others. AIMM researchers will provide training lectures and field work training. During this period you will learn and use several of the most used techniques and methodologies to study cetaceans. It will be given the opportunity to learn about data collection, photo analyses (photo-id), acoustic records, underwater and aerial videos, etc.
The field trips are conducted in AIMM’s research vessel, Ketos, and also aboard commercial whale watch boats in partnership.
The species found vary slightly with the time of year but the most sighted are the short beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Occasionally we can also find the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), stripped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), Orca (Orcinus orca), minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and the fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus).
For every cetacean group found we collect several biological, ecological and environmental data.
The interns will share the house with AIMM researchers and assistants, in a villa in Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal. Everyone shares house chores, such as cleaning and cooking.