Ocean Ecotour, Muroto Style

Date: Thursday, 23 May, 1996 Location: Sakihama Fishing Port, Muroto City, Kochi Prefecture. Weather Conditions : A light cloud cover. The rain from two days ago has left us with 1.5 to 2 metre waves and fairly strong winds. However, visibility is excellent and the temperature is mild -- over land 23.5c, over water 21c -- with a water temperature of 20c. Underwater visibility is good. We depart with the ebbing tide.

Following reports we heard yesterday on the short-wave radio, we leave Sakihama Port and head south, south east for about 10 kilometres.

Captain Nagaoka's navigation charts are full of marks to indicate where he has sighted whales.

Nagaoka: It's perfect weather for seeing Sperm Whales here in Muroto, and there have been many sightings yesterday. Cape Muroto can been seen in the distance.

Flying fish jump gracefully out of the water in front of our boat.

To check if there are any Sperm Whales in the area, we lower a hydrophone, (an underwater microphone), into the ocean, but the only identifiable sounds are the screws of distant boats.

In front of us, I thought I saw a pile of rubbish floating on the surface, but after a closer inspection, it turns out to be a flock of sea birds. But all kinds of rubbish, like cans and plastic bags, can be seen floating here and there. I can't believe some people just throw their rubbish overboard. As forecast, the waves are fairly rough. The wind is strong enough to make the tops of the waves foamy and white. Even if we do encounter a Sperm Whale, I'm a little bit worried that we won't be able to see it clearly in this weather. The decision is made to head south west for about 5.5 kilometres.

Suddenly, there is a shout of "Thar she blows!" from the the watch platform. Our vessel, the Suehiromaru II, comes to an immediate halt. Everyone on board focuses their gaze in the direction in which lookout is pointing. About 200 metres in front of us, we see five water spouts, which could only be that of Sperm Whales. The Suehiromaru II edges slowly forward to get a better look. It's hard to tell if we are moving or not because we are all concentrating so hard on the one spot in the ocean. Unexpectedly, a Sperm Whale surfaces 15 metres off the port side of our boat, and proceeds to slowly cross our path. It's so close, we feel as if we could reach out and touch it.

Nagaoka : It's best not to stop the boat's engines. The whales seem to feel more comfortable if there is no apparent change in the boats movements.

The whale has cleared our path, so we begin to slowly follow it. Occasionally, it dives beneath the surface, but always comes back up to the surface, close to our boat. Concentrating hard on the open sea for such a long period of time is really tiring, and I am glad that I brought along a good hat and a pair of sunglasses.

After five minutes or so of following the whale, it abruptly performs a peduncal arch (curving it's back in preparation to dive), raises it's tail flukes up in the air as if to wave good bye, and then sounds deep. That is the last we see of this particular whale.

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We come to a sudden halt again and the started to slowly follow another Sperm Whale, like we did before. But this time, the whale came directly towards the boat. At first I though it my eyes were playing tricks on me. It is so huge; like a big, black submarine, but with a nostril.

We can see the blow hole on the whale's head very clearly. Everyone on board the boat is filled delighted to see a whale at such close range.

No more whales seem to be in the area, so we try lowering the hydrophone into the ocean one more time. This time we can hear the clicking 'voices' of the whales, which sounds something like stones being rubbed together.

Come on! Whalefreaks.(Newsgroup)