At least 75 individual dolphins observed today!
Today I recorded about 40 minutes of video and identified at least 30 individual dolphins prior to reviewing the video. We saw a group of sub-adult males socializing and milling about near Subarune. One or two of these males later joined the group we'd been watching near Kawaguchi Taki on the South side of Mikura Island.
We had our longest underwater observations today on Mikura's south 'side' in front of Kawaguchi Taki. The first entry included two adult females with their 1~2 year old calves followed by four young sub-adults (3 female and 1 male). They were very playful and circle swam around us while whistling and rubbing each other. Very cool, though I did get dizzy a couple times!
Our second entry had dolphins in and out of view a couple of times and was closer to shore. There was some runoff from the waterfall and the surface water was a bit blurry nearer to shore. Still, the group that we saw included several adult males and a couple of mother/calf pairs. I was able to see scars and marks to identify some of the male and female adults on site, but will need to review my video to confirm any other IDs.
Today's video brings us to about 8 hours of data so far this season! Our return on effort rate is the highest it has ever been here at Mikura. Just amazing.
Till tomorrow,
Kathleen