A lazy dolphin day 
Two boat trips in a row today! I am pretty tired! It was warm and sunny with some choppy water on the west side of the island. There were 3 sick passengers on the afternoon trip – I think they were as much sick from the currents in the water as the rough conditions on the boat. Hardly a trip goes by without at least one passenger feeding the fish (if you catch my drift).
Today’s trip was filled with inquisitive subadults, including Ketsushakure (#404) who I saw a lot of last year. The above picture is of one of these subadults tail-slapping the water by our boat. It was a rather strange event: the dolphin (I am not sure who it was) hovered upside-down in the water and swam closer and closer to the boat, tail slapping the whole way. Tail slapping occurs when dolphins are disturbed, angry, frustrated, excited, etc. I am not sure what prompted this little episode, but it didn’t seem to be out of anger.
During the afternoon trip, I followed this subadult group for over 10 minutes, They were playing with me and with each other. At one point, they picked up some drifting seaweed and started playing a game of keep-away. They were exceedingly curious today, and swarmed around me very close – echolocating quite a bit on the MVA again. But they also just sort of swam besides me kind of lazily – with eyes half closed, in a relaxed state. I just hung there beside them as we all enjoyed the sunny afternoon. I was happy that they let down their guard a little and allowed me to ‘hang out’ with them as they went about their business of socializing and playing. It was a nice little moment!
-Justin