out here it was morning and we were treated to an amazing sight. No less than 100 yards off the cliffs there was a pod of fighting males with one female and a calf present. The entire group of 6-8 whales swam right past our location and were close enough for us to hear them blow. It was absolutely amazing; I was able to take some really good pictures. I hope they come out well.The discussion in lecture today was lead by some of the research assistants. Mike and Quincy were lecturing on the Japanese slaughter of dolphins and captivity issues. We learned the ugly truth about how Japanese eliminate rivals for their fishing industry, mainly dolphins. We were told the graphic story of how the Japanese heard the dolphins into a shallow cove and then just brutally hack and the defenseless and immobile dolphins with machetes and literally turn the entire cove red with blood. I am really disgusted by the Japanese actions that are basically anti-conservation, and then they use the excuse that it is part of their culture, when the truth is their culture disappeared when the U.S. went in there after World War II. Jan. 16 The World Trade Organization. Need a more environmental attitude?Today we were back at the cliffs. The weather was calm clear and we saw a lot of activity during the scans. Then, predictably, all of the action stopped once it came time to pick a pod of whales. We ended up with another singer, single male pod that just rises breaths and then dives for 10-20 min. So needless to say the data we gathered was pretty much a whale that just stayed in one spot for the entire 4 and a half hours we were out there.The lecture discussion was run by team 8 tonight. The white hot tuna scandal was the title of tonight’s lecture. Today we learned how the United States tried to refuse tuna from countries that refused to use dolphin safe tuna nets. But when the U.S. refused to buy from Mexico the WTO (world trade organization)...
