A book by Professor Emeritus Kosaku Yamaoka, "Kuroshio Current Headwaters Sea Kayak Pilgrimage Journey," has been published. Professor Emeritus Yamaoka has been exploring the lives and happiness of people living in the Kuroshio Basin through pilgrimage travel by sea kayak since the establishment of the Graduate School of Kuroshio Science and the construction and development of education and research networks with the Philippines in the headwaters region of the Kuroshio Current. This book is the culmination of his work.

This book is the first travelogue by Prof. Yamaoka and world-renowned marine adventurer Satoru Yahata, who while at Kochi University visited the east coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines, the source of the Kuroshio Current, by sea kayak, and describes the happiness and lifestyle of the local small-scale fishermen. It also depicts the human drama of a visit to a fishing village on the east coast of Luzon by a mature university professor and a marine adventurer with no sea kayaking experience.

Profile of Satoru Yahata: 46 years old, born in Fussa City, Tokyo. He currently makes his living guiding sea kayaking tours on Ishigaki Island. He has paddled alone from Australia to Japan, without a boat to accompany him, to explore the theme of how people live with the sea. Among his adventures that have taken the world by surprise are the crossing of the Bashi Strait between the Philippines and Taiwan, which no one had ever even planned, the crossing between Hualien and Yonaguni Island in Taiwan, where the Kuroshio Current flows northward at 7 km/h, and the 220 km crossing between Miyakojima and Kumejima Island, which has no islands at all.

山岡耕作名誉教授による著書「黒潮源流シーカヤック遍路旅」が出版されました。山岡名誉教授は、大学院黒潮圏海洋科学研究科の発足及び黒潮源流域のフィリピンとの教育・研究ネットワークの構築・展開に尽力された後、黒潮流域圏に住む人々の生活や幸せのあり方について、シーカヤックによる遍路旅を通じて探求されてきました。本著は、その集大成となる渾身の作品となっています。

著書の概要
　本書は高知大在籍時の山岡教授と世界的海洋冒険家八幡暁氏が、黒潮の源流域にあたるフィリピン・ルソン島東岸約1000キロをシーカヤックで訪れ、現地の零細漁民の幸せ感と生活を中心に描いた初の紀行であり、シーカヤック経験の全くない熟年大学教授と海洋冒険家が、ルソン島東岸の漁村を訪ねた際の人間模様も描かれている。

八幡暁氏のプロフィール：東京都福生市生まれの４６歳。現在石垣島にてシーカヤックツアーの案内を生業とする。海と共に暮らす人々がどのように生きているのかをテーマに、オーストラリアから日本まで、伴走船なし、単身で漕ぎ渡る。彼が世間を驚かせた冒険としては、誰一人として計画さえしたことのなかったフィリピン-台湾間のバシー海峡横断、黒潮が時速７キロで北に向け流れる台湾花蓮-与那国島間横断、島の全くない宮古島-久米島間220キロ横断などが挙げられる。