Something different from My Usual Report.
I realize this is not what many expect from a Field Report on dolphin behavior and communciation research, however, Miyake is just 18 km north of Mikura. And, I spent two years living on Miyake and studying these dolphins and I still have many friends living on Miyake. An alert for the potential of eruption came at about 7:30 PM on Monday night. So far, there has been no eruption (now Tues AM in Japan). A TV update provided a graph with various measured parameters (sorry couldn't read the kanji) from the meteorological agency and the values appear to be a bit lower, but the threat is still pressing. Miyake has an active volcano on her mountain (Oyama) with the last eruption in 1983 (no fatalities) which wiped out the town of Ako. Ako is on the southwest side of Miyake. The currently-predicted eruption, when (and if) it comes, is predicted to follow a similar path as last time. All that the residents can do today is wait. I'll keep you poseted if anything new happens. For a dolphin-update: Yes, we had a boat trip Monday afternoon … but we could only travel along the west and southwest sides of Mikura due to strong northeast winds and rain. We observed a few dolphins (and recorded some video) between the one meter swells. Will work on video analyses today while keeping track of news reports. No boat trips planned for today – few guests mid-week. I might accompany a few folks to the lake near the center of Mikura, near the top of our mountain. Will keep you posted if this trip happens. FYI – Mikura has a maximum elevation of about 800 meters. Cheers for now. Kathleen