A day of rest, replenishment.

The Kuroshio-maru comes today bringing fressh veggies and fruit.

It seemed that everyone around today needed a day of rejuvenation. None of the researchers went out on the water today. And as the afternoon progressed, coppy seas appeared and the wind picked up. Grey skies added to the dour feel of the day. All this made for a good day to catch up on some reading and data review. And, yes, I must admit a brief nap. The dolphins seem much more habituated and tolerant to the swimmers this year. The encounters have been longer than in past and I have already gathered more video footage and click detector recordings than last summer. I wonder if the habituation we are seeing is due to the decreased stress levels. That is, the last two years have had much fewer visitors to Mikura to swim with the dolphins. Because there are fewer guests, their behavior is easier to manage … i.e., we cannot manage the behavior of wild dolphins. We can, however, instruct people not to chase or touch the dolphins. All this is just musings. Need to review my data from 1997 to the present … see if the ratio of video minutes to effort spent looking for dolphins has increased or remained relatively constant. It may also be possible that a full generation of dolphins at Mikura has been swim with … that is, we are seeing our first few dolphin grandmothers in this population. Neat to see the generations and maybe, the dolphins see us 'splitfins' as part of their culture now. Well, tomorrow is another day … and one likely spent on the water. Till tomorrow, Kathleen