Mr. Typhoon has postponed his visit Today was the day that the typhoon was supposed to arrive. All of the tourists fled the island yesterday with the afternoon ferry, leaving only the locals here on Mikura. We had expected the worst weather to hit the island today. But lo and behold, the sun came out and the weather is gorgeous! There are no boat trips because there are no tourists, which is a bit of a bummer.
Category: Japan 2005
Mr. Typhoon has still not arrived, but the seas are too rough for dolphin watching.
A day of data, dawdling, and DVDs The typhoon has still not arrived, but the seas have certainly gotten a lot rougher. There were a couple of boats going out this morning, and I almost got on one of them, but we decided that we did not want to risk damaging our equipment by taking the camera out on seas this rough. Having the camera crash into the side of the boat, or accidentally gouging a passenger with one of the hydrophone arms was not something we wanted to have happen.
Typhoon imminent, but we still squeezed in a trip!
The weather is threatening mischief…
We were on the water for almost an hour before we saw our first dolphins. This is pretty rare – usually we find a few dolphins within 10 or 20 minutes. I thought perhaps there was a dolphin conference out of town, or maybe the typhoon had sent them all into deeper waters. Eventually we found a small group that had skipped the conference and were still hanging around the island. #032 (Atokake) swam up for a good long look.
A beautiful day and TONS of dolphins
The water was calm, the air was warm, and all the dolphins in the world swam by me. The weather was great today – no wind, no waves, mostly sunny, and pretty darn warm. I managed to hop on an early morning boat trip. We saw a few dolphin groups swimming lazily around the island. We must have stumbled across them during their ‘quiet time’. Although for the most part they were not interested in interacting, they were also not too bothered by us, so we got some good video shots as they passed us by.
Lots of boats, but hardly any dolphins
I was lucky enough to get another boat trip this morning – but the dolphins were grumpy The tourist season here on Mikura really starts to kick off in June, with serious crowds coming to the island in July and August. People come here for dolphin watching, and to wander through the beautiful forests on the island. Usually this means that space on the dolphin watching boats is at a premium, so I won’t get the chance to go out to conduct research. I was lucky today that there was space available.
Data, photography, gardens and a mysterious songbird
No boat trips today – finally a chance to process data I can’t say I was too disappointed that there were no boat trips today. The weather in the morning was dismal and drizzly, and the afternoon was boring and hazy. This gave me a much needed excuse to start processing video and audio data. Not glamorous, but a necessity. I also took the opportunity to visit the little garden I inherited from the Obaa-chan.
Another great day (I am starting to think everyday is a great day on Mikura)
Let me tell you the story of a brave little dolphin who survived a nasty shark attack The first image is provided by Nana Takanawa – for more of her amazing pictures of dolphins and Mikura, visit her site.
These two pictures are of little Hamlet and his mother Hama-chan (#086). As you can see from the first picture, poor little Hamlet was attacked by a shark when he was very young (sometime last year I believe). There is a sizable chunk missing from his back just behind his dorsal fin.
A visit to the dolphin nursery
Two boat trips today – lots of great video! Well I am exhausted! This was one long day – we managed to squeeze in 2 boat trips, with just enough time in between to get my equipment ready for the second trip. It was COLD in the water today – probably a result of all the rain we have had. For our fist trip, we were not long out of port before we stumbled across a large group of females with their calves.
Rain, rain, rain
The weather kept everyone inside today There were no dolphin watching trips today, so I had a chance to stay inside and catch up on the little things; data crunching, equipment checks, etc. But I also managed to visit the local school to lend a hand with English lessons. The school’s English teacher, Tanaka-sensei, asked me to sit in on a few of his classes.
The real research begins
Welcome to Mikura, I hope you brought your rain gear! I managed to land an early boat trip this morning. Unlike the last few days, today’s weather was rather dreadful. At times there was a torrential downpour with brief interludes of debilitating hail coming at us horizontally. If you know that image from the movie A Perfect Storm – the one where the little fishing boat is perched on a 200 foot wave – then you have an idea of how it felt today. There were some large-ish swells out there, and our little boat took a pounding.
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