Dolphin Watching in Amakusa, Kumamoto

When people outside of Japan think of the words “dolphins” and “Japan”, they usually think of the controversial dolphin drive fishery which occurs in the small village of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture.  The Taiji dolphin drive fishery was made famous (or perhaps it is better to say “infamous”) by the 2009 film “The Cove”.  The film’s graphic images had such a strong impact that, in April 2015, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums suspended the membership of the Japan Association of Zoos and Aquariums until JAZA agreed to prevent its member aquariums from buying live dolphins caught at Taiji.  

In another Japanese fishing community located in Itsuwa-machi in Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture, there is a different story of “dolphins” and “Japan”.  According to researchers, about 200 Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) live year-round in the waters surrounding Tsujishima Island, and since 1993, fishermen in the area have been conducting dolphin watching tours as a form of ecotourism.  Based on information found on the internet and on signs at the harbor in Itsuwa-machi, there appears to be about 13 companies offering dolphin watching tours, with the usual cost being 2500 yen for an adult ticket.  The advertising materials for these companies boast that their tours have a 98% success rate when it comes to sighting the dolphins, and they promise customers a second boat ride for free if dolphins are not sighted. 

Pictured below is the dolphin watching information center which serves as a focal point for promotion of all of the tour operators. 

Three of the companies offering dolphin watching tours

The pier at the harbor in Itsuwa-machi where many of the tour boats load their passengers

Boat harbor at nearby Tsujishima Island : many of the small fishing boats here appeared to be modified to accommodate dolphin watching passengers.

A sign at the harbor provided basic information about the dolphins’ physical characteristics and a list of dolphin watching rules adopted by the Itsuwa-machi Tourism Association.  Included in the list were rules such as: boats are not to feed or chase the dolphins; boats are not to navigate any closer than 200 meters to the dolphin pods; moving boats are to travel in a direction parallel to the movement of the dolphin pods; and boats are to maintain a distance of at least 30 meters from the dolphins (excluding instances where the dolphins approach the boats.)

Intending to avoid the crowds of peak season, I participated in a dolphin watching tour on a weekday in late February.  Despite the cold weather, there were at least 5 boats out on the water with a total of about 25 customers.  We departed the boat harbor at 10:00 a.m. for what was scheduled to be a 1-hour ride.  The captain of our vessel appeared to be a veteran fisherman, perhaps about 60 to 65 years old.  He was quiet and serious-looking, and I only heard him speak when he instructed us to put on our life jackets when we first boarded the boat.  He provided no narration regarding the dolphins, no interpretation of the tour contents, and not even any salty sea captain stories.  This tour could be described in simple terms as “ride boat, look for dolphins”.  In retrospect, the signboard at the harbor was the biggest source of dolphin information on this day.

When I checked my watch at 10:50, we had still not encountered any dolphins, and I resigned myself to the fact that I would be one of the unlucky 2% of customers who did not see a dolphin.  For all of this time, there had been no other boats travelling anywhere near us on a wide-open sea, and although it had been an enjoyable ride, the ocean wind was cold and I was debating about whether I wanted to invest another hour in a free second boat ride. 

At 10:54 a.m., the captain suddenly gunned the boat engines and changed direction.  A few seconds later, we realized that he had spotted a pod of dolphins to the right side of our boat, a pod that we would end up tracking for the next 20 minutes. The boat captain must have communicated this sighting to the other vessels because within a few minutes the 4 other boats joined us in creating a small flotilla.  The other boats had congregated so quickly, it seemed like they had come out of nowhere.  The captain alternately sped up and slowed down, maneuvering our vessel in a course parallel to the path of the pod. 

I was able to get fairly good views of the dolphins as they swam a parallel course to the boat, sometimes only 20 to 30 meters from my camera. 

Dolphin Watching or Dolphin Chasing?

Despite the rules ostensibly prohibiting dolphin chasing, the maneuvers executed by the various tour boats at times certainly made me feel that we were engaged in some sort of pursuit.  The boats often jockeyed for the best viewing positions, changing course, weaving between other boats, speeding up, and slowing down.

After seemingly tolerating the presence of the boats for a while, the pod of dolphins would submerge, thereby throwing off the pursuing fleet.  But each time the dolphins would return to the surface, the boat captains would gun their engines and repeat the process.  (A paper written by Japanese researchers reported that increases in the number of dolphin-watching boats caused the Amakusa dolphin pods to increase the amount of time they spent underwater, and to decrease the amount of time between their surfacing and subsequent diving.  This paper suggested a need for limits on the number of boats allowed to approach each dolphin pod.)

The entire pursuit scene reminded me of the wacky-racer drivers I witnessed while doing tiger tours in India.  Perhaps similarities are inevitable considering the fact that both tours involve searching for wild animals whose movements can be neither controlled nor dependably predicted, and the fact that many tour participants seem less concerned about preservation of the wild and more concerned about whether they will be able to spot the target animals and take a “selfie” photograph.

Interestingly, the day prior to my boat ride, I was able to observe a group of 3 dolphin-watching boats floating about 500 meters off the shore of Tsujishima Island.  From my land-based vantage point, it appeared that the boats were drifting in the current (or moving very slowly) very close to a pod of dolphins.  I guess that when the dolphins are in the mood, they can prove to be quite friendly to the tourists. 

I wonder if they posed for any “selfies”.

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on February 22, 2016.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.)