A beautiful day and some inquisitive teenagers Another boat trip dropped into my lap this afternoon! Most of the weekend tourists headed back on the Sunday afternoon ferry, so there was plenty of free space on the boats to squeeze me and the MVA onboard. It was somewhat sunny today with relatively calm seas (the seas are never calm near Motone – the big rock outcropping on the south side of the island….Motone… Mordor… there is a connection there…).
Category: Japan 2006
The night before Dolphins
A poem about nothing
‘Twas the day before Sunday, when all through the sea
Not a creature was stirring, not even an Indo Pacific bottlenose dolphin
The small boats were captained through the waterways with care,
In hopes that the dolphins soon would be there.
The passengers were nestled all safe it was said
While visions of dorsal fins danced in their heads.
And Gen-san in his helmet, and I with the MVA,
Had just settled in for a good dolphin day.
But alas, it was not to be. 2 hours out on the water yielded no more than 20 seconds of dolphin video.
Playful juveniles and ex-turtles
Boat trip of bizarre occurrences Today’s early morning boat trip was filled with strange occurrences. At some point during the trip, our captain decided he needed to try his hand at tuna fishing. There were a couple tuna boats offshore, so we made a bee-line for them and our captain dropped a fishing line in to test his luck. He came up empty handed however, and we moved on. We had a very long encounter with Joo (#551) a female juvenile who was very curious of us.
Mama mia!
Terrible weather brings us a new baby… maybe… Now that it is rainy and cold and the seas are choppy once again, the dolphins have come back out in force! I had an early afternoon boat trip. The boat was filled with very excited passengers – this was their frist dolphin swim experience, and they erupted in shouts as soon as we spotted the first dorsal fin breaking the surface. We followed an enormous group of female dolphins and their calves around the west side of the island.
A day at the office
No passengers, no boats Another tragedy today. The seas were nice and calm, but there were no tourists on the island. This meant that there were no dolphin trips today. So I stayed at home and worked on various research and data related things. I hired in the help of Mikura’s resident dolphin ID expert: Nana-chan. Nana is an IDoholic.
Jinxed!
Beautiful day – no dolphins I jinxed myself today! Silly me. As I was going out the door on my way to meet the boat at the pier, I casually remarked; ‘What a perfect day for dolphin watching!” I thought this was a completely innocent statement: the seas were calm, there was no wind, it wasn’t too hot or cold, etc. Look at the above picture to see how gloriously calm the seas were today. But it is exactly these kinds of statements that the gods of irony are listening for.
Dream day
Perfect conditions Mikura sure can keep you on your toes. Some days can be pretty trying: like the day before yesterday (my inaugural run of the season) where I was nearly comatose after 2 boat trips in terrible weather. Other days (like today) make dolphin research feel like a holiday at a 5 star hotel where dolphins just jump out of the water begging to be filmed while you sip strawberry daiquiris by the poolside. Metaphorically speaking of course.
The hooligans
Return of the prodigal sons No boat trips today – the sea was pretty rough. I took advantage of my day on shore to do some video analysis. It is an unglamorous task whereby I go through the video frame by frame and try to determine the ID of each of the dolphins that appear on-screen. It is often quite difficult if there is no obvious scarring on the dolphin or if the picture quality is poor. But a mammoth session allowed me to ID the entire video I collected from yesterday’s trips.
Happy Mother
First boat trip(s) of the season! I can now put my fear that this might be a slow season to rest. I piled on two boat trips today! That makes me a bit of a glutton for punishment – the weather was terrible. Huge swells and constant rain. And it was cold! Very very cold. Although I am not prone to seasickness, I was feeling pretty queasy on the boat and in the water as well – the swells made for some strong currents under the water – a bit like riding an underwater roller coaster.
Daikon disaster
No dolphins yet So my first boat trip of the season will have to wait another day. The weather is not being very cooperative – it is cold and windy. Not many boats out on the water today, so I wasn’t able to find a ride. I did however stop by the school only to learn that Tanaka-sensei (the energetic English teacher I worked with last year) is now back in Tokyo teaching at another school.
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