The sea condition is worsening and we are coming to a weekend (i.e., many tourists).
I filled the last space on the trip with Michio this afternoon. There were three other watching boats out and several fishermen. The wind and sea were up but we saw dolphins between Motone and Shirataki. We had four sightings of about 8-12 dolphins per group. A sub-adult male group, a female sub-adult group, a mixed group and then that went undetermined as we did not stop to observe them under water.
We saw Koshakure (#161) and several other female sub-adults who were whistling loudly and were quite inquisitive around the swimmers. The male group was socially active with loud intense sounds and much rubbing. They were 100% uninterested in the swimmers and we only saw them a couple times under water from a distance.
All in all, a good day. A nice way to wrap up this sumemr's field season. I will be finalizing details of my stay on Mikura this weekend and returning to Tokyo on Monday (assuming the weather holds). I will post a few more reports including a summary of data collected over the next week or so. I will be visiting Enoshima again to give a lecture and then do another workshop. So, I will keep you posted on those events as well.
Cheers
Kathleen