The objective of this project is to establish a Portuguese label and an historical, cultural, and ecological route of the whales’ presence along all the Portuguese mainland coast.
Route of the Whales is the results of the scientific and entreperneur efforts of its proponents. The objective of this project is to establish a Portuguese label and an historical, cultural, and ecological route of the whales’ presence along all the Portuguese mainland coast.
This route will indicate locations along the mainland coast of Portugal, such as museums, monuments with cultural references to historical whaling, locations of land observation of marine fauna, whale and dolphin watching locations. For each region in Portugal mainland information will be made available through local singage, website, an apps and leaflets.
In a first part of the project (the one submitted here), partiular attentio will be gicen to the region of Atouguia da Baleia, Peniche and Baleal (west central coats), where several interesting locations (both in terms of biology and history of whales) do exist. This will give indication and perspectives for the creation of a future national (including the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores) or even Iberian route of whales.
This project will allow the dissemination of historical/scientific knowledge obtained and compiled and to draw attention to the historical presence of whales and its importance in the history of Portugal and the Atlantic.
Toponimia de Portugal relacionada com as baleias
About the author
The SCHOOL OF SEA is a private initiative aimed at studying, researching, learning and increasing awareness and information of knowledge about the marine environment and the land/sea interface. Our objectives are to:
1 – Gain knowledge about marine animals and the ecosystems they belong to;
2 – Bring children and youths closer to the marine environment and all its aspects;
3 – Establish conservation policies and an up-to-date and scientifically sound awareness policy about marine environment issues;
4 – Encourage a creative state of mind about the presence and importance of the sea in human societies;
5 – Increase the general public’s awareness of the importance of protected areas and sea and environment conservation.
This is a diverse and multidisciplinary enterprise in which all activities are in some way related to the sea.
Experts with different backgrounds are involved in this project. Biologists, teachers, historians, computer experts, writers, artists, sailors and divers are some of the people who contribute to School of Sea.
Cristina Brito
Integrated researcher at the Centre for Overseas History (CHAM, FCSH/NOVA).Founding member of School of Sea and president of the board of the Association for Sea Sciences. Dr. Cristina Brito has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology Applied to Animal, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1993/1998), a Masters in Ethology from the Institute of Applied Psychology (1998/2000) and a PhD in History – History of the Portuguese Discoveries and Expansion, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of New University of Lisbon (2005/2010).She is presently conducting her post-doc research with the project “Trading, transportation and dealing in exotic animals and their products: Their impact on European science and culture”, and is a research assistant at the Centre for Overseas History (CHAM, FCSH-UNL), founding member of the School of Sea and president of the board of the Association for Sea Sciences.Dr. Brito has an interdisciplinary profile and approach to research topics and completed hundreds of hours of bibliographic and historical research in national and foreign archives and libraries and thousands of hours of cetaceans observation at sea while applying a wide range of scientific data collecting techniques on whales, dolphins and their ecosystem. Dr. Brito won the Sagres Express Milennium Award 2001 for the implementation of the project “Bottlenose dolphins of the Sado river estuary: action and conservation measures”. She also held a Masters scholarship 20927/99 from the Praxis XXI Program of the Foundation for Science and Technology and a SYNTHESIS European research scholarship at the Museo Nacional da Ciências Naturales in Madrid, in 2007. In 2009, she won a project financed by the Project AWARE Foundation.In addition, has participated in several conferences, presenting both talks and posters, such as the Conference of the European Cetacean Society, Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Jornadas do Mar, Congresso Nacional de Etologia and Oceans Past. Also, has organized courses, workshops and environmental awareness activities about marine mammals, and has been invited as visiting teacher by renowned institutions such as ISPA, FCUL, FCSH-UNL, ESTM of Peniche, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Besides, Dr. Brito publishes in several national and international specialty journals.
