Another day spent at 'deskwork'
Last weekend and this weekend, about 12 volunteers for the Kenkyuukai visited Mikura, and stayed in the research house (where I stay). A full house is one description. These folks are all friendly and all learning the ropes for volunteering for the summer research program. The weekends are their orientation to the data collection and to meeting the senchoo and other folks related to teh research group. The folks also learn how to work and live together. They will spend anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks here this summer (July & August). It has been fun helping a bit and talking a bit about DCP's research and my time on Mikura and studying the Mikura bottlenose dolphins. Since it was a rainy day, I spent most of it inside. When not conversing with the volunteers, I was working on the ID sketches and the confirmations of ID from video, with the ID books. The MIK has identified about 160 individual dolphins around Mikura. We know the sex and age (relative) of each animal. And the ID books reflect those categories. Last year there were eight new dolphins identified (not just the neonate dolphins seen). Tomorrow's weather is supposed to improve … wish us luck. Cheers Kathleen