Crazy high waves bring out the dolphins I had two boat trips today and I am exhausted. We saw plenty of dolphins on both trips, but the weather turned kind of nasty in the afternoon, so the second trip had some rough conditions. Not far from the pier we spotted several groups of dolphins frolicking (yes, really frolicking) in the high waves crashing against the shore. They were leaping and surfing the big waves in. The surf tossed our little boat around, and it made getting on and off the boat quite challenging – especially with the MVA.
Tag: older content
Some quiet days
Sunday’s afternoon kayak trip through the mangroves of east Bimini was a fabulous. Even though I managed to fall off my kayak twice- in a row. Now, keep in mind that these are sit-on-top ocean kayaks…they are designed for dummies. And this dummy tipped over twice. Good thing I know myself well enough to have tied down all of my things so they didn’t get lost in the mangrove muck. Eh, it was a good laugh at the very least. Monday morning was business-y and the afternoon was a fun boat trip north.
Another day in paradise
The mother of all dolphin days What a perfect day. The weather was wonderful – sunny and warm. The bad news: my morning dolphin trip was cancelled. The good news: Kogi-san (housemate, friend and fellow researcher) offered to take Nana-chan and I out on a special dolphin watching trip solely for research! And lucky for us, today was the unofficial “Dolphin Census Day” here on Mikura. It felt like every single dolphin that had ever been seen around Mikura decided to make an appearance today. We saw 3 different groups – each containing 25 to 30 dolphins.
Joo has a boyfriend (na-na-na-na-goo-goo)
A beautiful day and some inquisitive teenagers Another boat trip dropped into my lap this afternoon! Most of the weekend tourists headed back on the Sunday afternoon ferry, so there was plenty of free space on the boats to squeeze me and the MVA onboard. It was somewhat sunny today with relatively calm seas (the seas are never calm near Motone – the big rock outcropping on the south side of the island….Motone… Mordor… there is a connection there…).
The night before Dolphins
A poem about nothing
‘Twas the day before Sunday, when all through the sea
Not a creature was stirring, not even an Indo Pacific bottlenose dolphin
The small boats were captained through the waterways with care,
In hopes that the dolphins soon would be there.
The passengers were nestled all safe it was said
While visions of dorsal fins danced in their heads.
And Gen-san in his helmet, and I with the MVA,
Had just settled in for a good dolphin day.
But alas, it was not to be. 2 hours out on the water yielded no more than 20 seconds of dolphin video.
Bottlenose
Tenth trip of the season!
Playful juveniles and ex-turtles
Boat trip of bizarre occurrences Today’s early morning boat trip was filled with strange occurrences. At some point during the trip, our captain decided he needed to try his hand at tuna fishing. There were a couple tuna boats offshore, so we made a bee-line for them and our captain dropped a fishing line in to test his luck. He came up empty handed however, and we moved on. We had a very long encounter with Joo (#551) a female juvenile who was very curious of us.
Mama mia!
Terrible weather brings us a new baby… maybe… Now that it is rainy and cold and the seas are choppy once again, the dolphins have come back out in force! I had an early afternoon boat trip. The boat was filled with very excited passengers – this was their frist dolphin swim experience, and they erupted in shouts as soon as we spotted the first dorsal fin breaking the surface. We followed an enormous group of female dolphins and their calves around the west side of the island.
Last trip of the
Better weather for this week’s last trip. We really enjoyed this week’s passengers. They were so patient with the lousy weather and I think (hope) they all had a good time. Today we saw the first group of spotteds (about 13) at 17:11. We were going through encounter withdrawal, so we hopped into the water even though the animals were a bit on the move. And, of course, they didn’t stick around, so it was back on the boat for surface observations. From the boat we were able to see Lil’
A day at the office
No passengers, no boats Another tragedy today. The seas were nice and calm, but there were no tourists on the island. This meant that there were no dolphin trips today. So I stayed at home and worked on various research and data related things. I hired in the help of Mikura’s resident dolphin ID expert: Nana-chan. Nana is an IDoholic.
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