Little is known about cetacean communities around La Palma Island. Therefore, and in order to determine the presence and distribution of the cetacean species on its west coast, daily censuses were carried out from November 2003 to April 2005. The platform used was a whale watching vessel certified by the Canary Government. Data collected included time, position, species identity, group size and, in some cases, the presence of calves and/or any other outstanding parameter. During the study period, 570 sightings were made, with a mean sighting success of 1.7 sightings per day, showing a high cetacean presence in the area. Thirteen species and one genus (Globicephala spp.) were positively matched, three of them included in the Mysticeti suborder and the other ten in the Odontoceti one. The four most sighted species, in decreasing order, correspond to Tursiops truncatus, Steno bredanensis, Globicephala spp. and Stenella frontalis. Diversity of sighted species shows a moderate peak during spring time, which is in agreement with the presence of occasional species. Most sightings were located off the central west coast of the island, exceeding 1.5 nautical miles. This is particularly outstanding in relation to Franja Marina de Fuencaliente SCI, where 90% of all sightings were located outside its boundaries. High cetacean presence and diversity off the west coast of La Palma Island seem to be connected with oceanographic and ecological features. Results gained provide, for this region, baseline data on cetacean populations and a useful tool in conservation plans.

During the last thirteen years 121 NOAA drifters have been deployed at the ESTOC site (European Station for Time-Series in the Ocean, Canary Islands), located in the North Atlantic (29º10´N, 15º30´W), ranging in time from 1998 to nowadays. The study of their trajectories has provided a good knowledge about the surface current system in this area. Wind and current data have also been added to improve the results. All this information has been implemented into a model intended to cover marine emergency situations in the Canarian archipelago waters, such as search and rescue operations and pollutant dispersal. The aim is to develop an Operational System, based in the combination of observations and analyses of oceanographic data with numerical simulation, in order to predict the drifting objects trajectories.