Seaweed is way cool
Today’s boat trip was quite pleasant. The water was very calm, although one passenger was sick – there is always one sick passenger. It is really a bummer to come all the way to Mikura on the ferry, spend a small fortune on an overnight stay and a dolphin trip, and then spend the entire eco-tour leaning over the side of the boat thinking ‘please get me off this boat – no more dolphins – I shouldn’t have had that mayonnaise sandwich for lunch..’ It seems to happen to one person on every trip, whatever the conditions.
It was raining and cloudy, but the water was warm in this one suspect area. Very nice! I can only speculate as to why it was warm just there… But the dolphins were enjoying it as well. We came across a group of subadult males frolicking in the seaweed. One dolphin went down to the bottom and starting tearing off chunks of seaweed. He then caught a few of the pieces floating by and started to play with them – changing them from fin to fin and catching them when they floated off. At one point, he did 3 or 4 barrel rolls with the seaweed on his pectoral fin. I have never seen a wild dolphin do that before – it was very amusing. Dolphins really are playful creatures.
A mighty thunderstorm is coming in tonight – we will see if this brings the end to our 4 day stretch of calm water. I hope not!
-Justin