Only two days had passed, but while in port it felt like eternity.
Then, just before noon, Souji-san called. His boat, Souei-maru, was going out again at 13:30 and I was invited. Hurray! We left at 13:26 just as the tardy ferry was stopping to pick up tourists returning to Tokyo. Immediately, we saw dolphins. Too close to the pier to enter the water, but there was another sub-group on the other side (east) of the new pier. This was a mixed group, socially active. They were not interested in the swimmer, but I recorded their behavior for a few minutes before they moved on.
We had 8 sightings of 6 groups. Our 6th sighting was actually of this first group we spied adjacent to the pier. They had moved quickly around the island and we saw them the second time near Akasawa, just past Shirataki.
Generally, most of the dolphins seemed to be resting: staying close to the sea floor, long durations (~60-90 sec) between breaths, no audible vocalizations. There were a few sub-adults or juveniles who showed a flicker of interest in either us, or the swells on the SW side of Mikura. The calm seas at the port, on Mikura's north side, were deceptive. The S to SW section of Mikura had a rolling swell that reached ~2 m in height. As I watched these swells break against the shore, I was reminded of the Hawaii 5-0 wave (an old TV program). The wave actually rolled to shore! This is the foreshadowing of typhoon #6 which is scheduled to arrive with high waves and rain later this weekend. Somehow it is easier to accept Mother Nature or Father Neptune requiring me to remain in port than the presence of too many humans. Oh well.
It was good to be out today and I returned with ~20 min of video and ECD data.
Till tomorrow,
Kathleen