Ichiro-sensei had his boat out today for some teachers, and me.
While we did not see the new calf born yesterday, we did see many other dolphins today: about 50-60 in total as different IDs. We had 6 sightings but swam with only 3 of the groups. Two were fleeting with only one surface observation of a couple of dorsal fins. The other was a group of resting dolphins that moved off when passengers from a second boat near us entered. Since the seas were choppy and the dolphins resting, we moved on.
Most of the dolphins we saw today were adult female groups with their 1~3 year old juveniles. We did see Kanzashi (#060) with her calf that was born in late April. This pair approached me purposefully, and circled swam around me for about 3 minutes. The calf does not have its fetal folds any more.
The underwater visibility was GREAT at more than 15 m and clear. My first entry had #030 and #068 and their 2 yr olds. They were milling about and moving slowly among the swimmers. Actually, I was first in the water and had about 5 min without any people. I was surprised when five minutes later I got out of the water and 5 more boats (with 8~9 passengers each) were with us. I had forgotten how many boats go out to accomodate 120 tourists! (with some folks going on 2-3 trips per day)
It was a good day and I was able to record ~20 min of video. More analyses but good interactions among the dolphins today as well.
Till tomorrow,
Cheers
Kathleen