We are cruising around the southern end of Chichijima and spot Heart Rock.

Moving on to Minami-jima, we decide to enter the bay.

It is a called "Same Ike" or "Shark Pond".

Hisao and I go snorkeling outside the entrance to the bay.

Most of the bay is lit by the sun, but at deep inside the bay is a corner shaded by the island cliffs. This is here the sharks hang out. Coming in out of the bright sunlight, it takes a while for our eyes to adjust to these dim, but clear waters.

And here is a resident of this corner of the Bay.

It is a White Tipped Reef Shark,

They are called "Nemuri-buka", or "sleeping shark" in Japanese, and you can see why.

This one we can tell is a male, because he has the claspers underneath which he uses to grasp the female while they swim along mating.

In fact we see about eight of these sharks once our eyes adjust the dim light.

Underwater photographer Hisao T. attempts to take shots of the sharks.

Say "cheese" sharky, and so long!

With the boat about to leave us we head back..

We head out of the bay and to the west of Chichijima where we spot some humpback whales.

This appears to be a mother and her calf.

We stop the boat and Hisao and Yoshi get to work shooting the whales.

Now we spot a third adult whale.

As they move further away, one whale waves goodbye to us all.