A quieter day, but certainly not an empty one. At 11:26am, three Bigg’s orcas were reported westing near Blinkhorn in Johnstone Strait. Then at 1:13pm came word that the A25s had turned up all the way down south in Nodales Channel, mid-Vancouver Island — slipping through Johnstone Strait. It’s become quite the A5 tradition, following the lead the A42s have set in recent years.
The evening came alive with calls finally, as the A34s were audible in Blackfish Sound at 6:56pm, and by 6:58pm those up on Donegal Head could see some of them near Bold Head on Swanson Island. The A67s were in the lead and easting, with A55, A80 and A34 following more slowly behind. They stalled in eastern Blackfish Sound, not much movement to speak of, though echolocation and calls were still audible around 8:38pm.
Darkness closed in by 9:20pm and Donegal Head lost sight of them for the night, and they were not marking their presence with any more calls. The rest of the evening was fairly quiet, save for a burst of Pacific White-sided Dolphin chatter and echolocation in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve between 10:40 and 11:15pm.
The 15th, however, was a different tale! One of those mornings that started way before dawn and did not let up.
The A34s were back in Blackfish Sound by 2:05am, and we tracked them slowly for a couple of hours, losing them briefly as they cut through Weynton Passage into Johnstone Strait before picking their calls back up and following them east. By 5am they were clearly at Kaizumi, with plenty of calls and echolocation coming through. Unfortunately, they were contending with a rather noisy cruise ship at the same time. By 6:29am the A34s had reached Robson Bight, still frustratingly masked by boat noise, but at 6:43am we finally had eyes on them, visible in the dawn light on the Robson Bight camera.
At 7:23am they made it to Strider for a rub — only about ten minutes, but full of audible chuffs. They turned offshore for a while before coming back in for a second rub from 7:44 to 7:54am. We got some lovely close passes of both our surface and underwater camera. Then it was back west: audible and visible close to Robson Bight again by 8:47am, echolocation ringing out as they foraged their way along, tracked west along the Vancouver Island shore.
By 9:21am they were level with Kaikash Creek but angling across towards Cracroft Point, moving quickly now. At 9:36am a few individuals, A55, A80 and A34, were identified cruising north past the Lab through Blackney Pass, clearing by 9:40am with the rest of the group following swiftly behind, zooming through minutes later and turning vocal once back in Blackfish Sound. A group of Pacific White-sided Dolphins had been tracking closely behind them the whole way, from around Kaikash right through Blackney Pass.
It was a busy morning for Bigg’s orcas too. Between 10:18 and 10:33am, a group tracked north through Blackney Passage, fog thickening enough to blur a clear view — later identified by the community as the T090s. Not long after, the T060s turned up at the Plumpers just around the corner from the Lab, while T059A1, T059A2 and T059A1A were spotted further west at Dickson Point.
The A34s, meanwhile, had reached Donegal Head by 1:14pm, spread out well offshore, before turning again at 1:49pm to ease east along Swanson Island quiet. By 2:53pm they’d crossed the channel and appeared suddenly at Burnt Point, a lovely tight group passing close to the Lab, this time heading south. They had not given us many calls to alert us to their coming, but thankfully cetacean researcher Jared Towers had alerted us to their coming and given us a moment to prepare. It didn’t take them long to pass, and by 3:14pm they were back in Johnstone Strait, using in the swift current to their advantage, crossing to the Vancouver Island shore towards Kaikash Creek and tracking slowly east once more.
By 5:51pm they’d reached Robson Bight again, and the evening light made for a beautiful scene: pec-slapping, rolling, milling together at the surface. This time they didn’t carry on to the beaches — instead they turned back west, passing Izumi Rock by 7:00pm. From there they held tight to the Vancouver Island shore, westing slowly out of our range as darkness took over for the night.
It is also impossible not to mention the humpbacks over the past two days! Blackney Passage and the “rip” off CP have been hotspots for humpback activity these past few days. Sometimes with up to 6 individuals sighted at once. Guardian and her calf have become ‘regulars’ for us, and we have seen a lot of lunge-feeding activity. A true sign that things are starting to shift towards fall…
