Atlantic whale and dolphin foundation reviews

charlotte1976

Hello, I am looking for people who have worked with the above organisation and can give me their account of how they found working with them, what is was like and any tips, etc. Many thanks

Reply 1

chubwhump

Not sure if you've volunteered already, or if you're still waiting for reviews.

I was one of the reviewers on the previous post here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=899045I

Absolutely stand by my comments. Ed is a vile manager, concerned only with the money he can profit from the organisation. Many of the people on the EU grant programme were not receiving the stipend they were promised - it ended up being delayed for several months and the coordinator felt pressured into paying out of her own pocket. The money that was coming in was being skimmed - I have it on good authority that the affectionately-named Mama Canaria was minimising the cost of the weekly shop and pocketing the rest of the money herself, as well as treating the AWF car as her own. Result was that we were often hungry during our stay, but our complaints were just dismissed as us being "super negs".

The scientific basis of the work is meaningless. The data is flawed by operator bias and error, and there's no established baseline or control. The fish ID/dive surveys, aimed to 'establish a baseline' is nebulous in intent; there's no research question to be answered but raising this point was pointless as again it was seen as being overly negative. There's a petition put to all tourists on the tourism boats that's said to be 'put to the IWC' - this is also a complete lie as the IWC don't take sway from external parties, or accept public petitions. 7 years of completely pointless work.

The cost is low, but the value for money is still poor. Please consider working elsewhere if you're looking to achieve some meaningful scientific or conservation work.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 2

hlbaker2745

I did some volunteering here in 2004 and had an awful experience. I am sad to see it hasn't improved at all. I'm not surprised the place burned down. Safety was never Ed's main concern. I am now working in research and I can say the research done here is worthless and nothing is done with the data the volunteers work so hard to collect.