The 10th was a relatively quiet day from our perspective, as all Northern Resident groups were “out west”. At 12:15pm, orcas were spotted from the Cracroft Point platform by Tom, working on our new CP outpost, and they were heading for Blackney Pass. Sure enough, an hour later at 1:15pm they came into view from the Lab deck, and we confirmed them as the T060s. We saw Dall’s porpoises and Steller Sea Lions hugging our shore, the sea lions nervously scanning their heads out of the water as they passed! The T060s carried on into Blackfish Sound, and began calling at 1:45pm, possibly announcing a successful hunt, or perhaps just no longer attempting to hunt and therefore no need for their silence. Alex Morton up on Donegal Head saw them clear into Queen Charlotte Strait at 4:05pm.
The evening belonged to the humpbacks. At 7:20pm, Guardian and baby were out in Blackney Passage, breaching again and again for a full fifteen minutes. A lovely way to close out the day.
August 11th was a busier one. It began in the dark with calls at 2:06am. A5 calls came up faintly in Blackfish Sound, and by 3:00–3:30am the whales had passed the Lab and entered Blackney Pass, moving on into Johnstone Strait. The calls were lovely and clear, clear enough that Tomoko, listening in from Japan, was able to identify them as the A25s. From 3:30 to 6:15am they continued east through the Strait, leaving a trail of acoustic signatures as they went, and by 6:15am we had them close on Robson Bight camera — always a good sign they’re headed for the rubbing beaches!
Sure enough, in beautiful early light, A61, A85 and A121 appeared at Strider Rubbing Beach right around dawn at 06:30am. The rub was brief, just a few minutes, before they carried on east past Main Rubbing Beach, close to shore, and out of our range for a few hours.
Meanwhile, at 9:52am, Alex picked up faint A34 calls over in Queen Charlotte Strait. By 1:30pm the A34s had made their way to Bold Head on Flower Island, milling in Blackfish Sound for a while before pushing on to the Plumper Islands and into Weynton Passage. They were in Johnstone Strait by 4:30pm.
Back east, the A25s had turned around. At 2:35pm they returned to Strider Rubbing Beach, staying just over an hour before heading west again past Robson Bight and beyond. We captured some beautiful footage of this family of three socializing together.
With the A34s meandering slowly east and the A25s coming back west, the two groups finally met near Kaikash Beach around 6:00pm. They stayed to the Vancouver Island side as they turned east once more, moving into the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve with lots of echolocation, and were back at Strider by 10:00pm for one more brief rub before heading east through Johnstone Strait and out of our “ears” until past midnight.
A whole day of tos and fros — and a nice reminder that the rubbing beaches are still very much the heart of it all!
