Dear Colleagues, In the next few months, Tarifa (Cádiz, Spain) will host a new interpretation centre for cetaceans of the Strait of Gibraltar. This centre has been created as a joint initiative from the GDR (Rural Development Group) de Los Alcornocales and GDR de La Janda, the NGO CIRCE (Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans) and whale watching operators based in Tarifa. The three main objectives are: (1) to provide the local population and the tourists with a high quality minimum mandatory educational package about cetacean species and conservation status of the marine environment in the Strait of Gibraltar before they go onboard any of the whale watching excursions in Tarifa. Then (2) to offer to anyone who is interested in knowing more about the biodiversity of the Strait of Gibraltar extensive up-to-date information about all the species in the area etc. Finally (3) to offer an alternative to whale watching trips during windy days in summer or during the whole winter when the activity is stopped. On behalf of CIRCE and all our partners, I am kindly requesting underwater high quality pictures of the seven species of cetaceans that can commonly seen in the Strait of Gibraltar, namely Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), Killer whale or orca (Orcinus orca), Long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas), Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba). The pictures can be taken in other places, as far as they match these species. The pictures will be given freely by the author to the interpretation centre and be used only for this educational purpose, however all author information will be shown on the picture, including its name, email contact, website etc. or anything that she/he would like to appear near the picture (including QR code that links to the author website…). The pictures should be sent to me at low/medium resolution as soon as possible and in any case before August, 10th , with all the needed information regarding the authorship (name and contact details) and the picture (Species, place it was taken, date, full size of the image in pixels and in Mo…). Then, a selection of the best pictures will be done based on the educational (showing species features, interesting behaviour…) and artistic characteristics. The selected authors will then be informed and asked to send the high resolution pictures. Thank you in advance to everyone who wants to help us raise the awareness about the marine environment. Please do not hesitate to contact me for any information. All the best Pauline ---------------------------- Pauline GAUFFIER CIRCE (España/Spain) http://www.circe.info ----------------------------