The Ogasawara Whale Watching Association is an association that regulates

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins ( cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. 2 ...

in the

Ogasawara Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

. Since 1989 the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association has been conducting research on and educating people about whales. The Ogasawara Whale Watching Association also offers whale watching tours. On September 30, 2004, researchers from the

National Science Museum of Japan The is in the northeast corner of Ueno Park in Tokyo. The museum has exhibitions on pre- Meiji science in Japan. It is the venue of the taxidermied bodies of the legendary dogs Hachikō and Taro and Jiro. A life-size blue whale model and a stea ...

and the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. Several of the 556 photographs were released a year later. The same team successfully filmed a live giant squid for the first time on December 4, 2006.

References

Cetacean research and conservation Natural history of the Bonin Islands Animal welfare organizations based in Japan Oceanographic organizations {{Environmental-org-stub