Our Season was VERY Productive with much data collected.
Twenty boat trips were provided for me to gather data on the dolphins. During this time we spent 38 hours, 31 minutes searching for and observing dolphins from which I was able to record more than 7.5 hours of video. This is about a 19.5% return on effort – the highest of any field season around Mikura for DCP. There were 92 sightings of dolphin groups with a range of 1-8 per trip and a trip median of 4 sightings. I entered the water on 151 occasions (range: 2-12, median: 9). The number of individual dolphins that were confirmed to be present on our video data was 121: 34 adult females, 16 sub-adult females, 3 juvenile females, 26 adult males, 33 sub-adult males, 7 juvenile males and 2 sub-adults for which we do not yet know the sex. We confirmed the gender of two young dolphins that are still identified by association with their moms: #083’s I year old calf is a female and #065’s infant is a male. One sub-adult female (#310) became an adult with the birth of her first calf this year. Similarly, several sub-adult males will now be classified as adults as they are showing spots on their bellies indicating their age as more than 12 years. Also this year, we had our first international collaboration between youth from Mikura Island and from Camp Zama (American kids). The workshop was a success with all the children learning more about the dolphins, the ocean and Mikura’s nature in general. They also made friendships that are still going strong (via letter and email). This summer program was a huge success in all views! I have a few days remaining in Japan as I prepare for a lecture and workshop at Enoshima Aquarium. Thank you for joining us again this summer, albeit electronically. J Till Next Summer and our 2005 Field Season. Cheers Kathleen