OGASAWARA (BONIN) ISLANDS

This article continues from “OGASAWARA-MARU TO THE BONIN ISLANDS”.  They say 94% of plant, insect, and animal species found on the island are endemic to the Ogasawara Island.  They are trying hard to keep the environment.  Thanks to that, the ocean water was so clear.  We enjoyed watching tropical fish near the beach. 

We joined two tours.  One is for dolphins, and the other one is for turtles.  The dolphin tour was one day, and the turtle tour was for 2 hours. 

My image of a “dolphin tour” was slow and relaxing, but it wasn’t.  When the boat found dolphins, we had to jump into the water right away, because they had no reason to wait for us.  More than 10 people on the same boat had to be really fast to jump in, not just fast, but very fast, like “Go, go, go!!”  As soon as dolphins swam away, we had to go back and climbed up the boat over and over.  It was different from what we expected, but we still managed watching them swimming in the ocean.

Do you know how turtles know the direction to walk in, right after they are born?  When the surrounding is totally dark, moon light reflects on to the sea and that makes it brighter.  That’s the direction turtles walk in, but  they get confused on a beach close to the street, as the street lights are blighter than the ocean.  So, what they do is they collect the eggs from the beach and hatch them, and as soon as turtles are born, they bring them back to the beach, but not to the one they originally collected the eggs from, but beaches with dark surroundings.  A tour guide brought a box with so many baby turtles, and we released them on the beach.  Because of the darkness, the stars were so beautiful, too! 

Although it’s not easy to visit Ogasawara Islands for tourist to Japan because of the long travel schedule, you might want to add Ogasawara Island to your visit-someday-list.