Past midnight we continued to hear the A50s travel through Blackfish Sound until 1:04am. Meanwhile, echolocation near Strider Beach at 12:13am alerted us to the possibility that some activity was going on. Sure enough a rub of sorts started at 12:15am and ended less than a minute later. It was a cursory effort, a mere brush over the stones. Whales were on the move. Was it the A25s? We followed the calls to the Kaizumi system just before 2am.
Bubble net feeding call was heard.
By 3:13am the calls shifted to Parson Island. Someone was off the entrance to Blackney Pass. These calls continued until 3:55am. Then nothing.
The next thing we were aware of was a report at 9:30am of three individuals heading east past Kaizumi. More than tempting to suggest that these were the A25s.
A short while later the day was filling up with other reports. Six Northern Residents were travelling south near Foster Islands. By 9:55am, the then A50s had been identified off the Egeria Shoals.
The Critical Point system picked up faint A5 calls at 10:15am and blows could be seen on the western side of the Bight with the use of the remote camera. At 10:40am there was faint echolocation, A61 was seen foraging in the Bight. As the camera searched around, three bears were noticed in the Tsitika Estuary.
At the Blackfish Sound end, Alex noticed, at 10:58am, the A50s barely moving off from Bold Head. There was lots of drifting on the surface as she watched.
The A25s were a bit more active. Between 11:20 and 11:25am they went for a rub at Strider. From the beach they went east.
The A50s managed to move closer to Flower Island in Blackfish Sound by 11:30am and travelling all together at a leisurely pace they moved through Blackney Pass. They were out of sight of the Lab by 12:43pm. Seven minutes later they came out and into view of CP. They were mid channel and favouring Hanson Island. Within ten minutes of first being seen they had crossed into the rip where they spread out to forage. A84 and A99 were off on their own to the east of CP. A72 was keeping her family close to her while A50 and A123 continued in the rip.
After varied movements in front of CP and the rip, the A50s finally decided to go east at 2:24pm. They went mid strait. Before this the A34s turned up off the “top” end of Blackfish Sound. We first heard them at 1:30pm. At 2:24pm, the same time the A50s were eastbound, the A34s were off Bold Head going back and forth.
The last A25 calls had been at 1:37pm. This small group was intent on going east and at 2:19pm they were past Naka Creek.
The A50s, who had angled over to Vancouver Island, went for a rub at Kaizumi between 4:49pm and 3:03pm. We have been having technical issues with this hydrophone system. Any calls heard there were distorted and weird. Technician Joel Mellish had a look into the problem and managed to extract the “bug’ in the system. It now sounds normal. After the rub the A50s followed the shoreline of Vancouver Island eastward.
A very disturbing call from the Marine Education and Research Society. The humpback Claw’s baby had been struck by a boat and suffered long but shallow cuts from the prop. The driver was ok and later in the day Claw and the baby were seen vigorously lunge feeding off the Pearse Island group.
The A50 calls shifted with their advancement east. At 3:54pm their calls and echolocation were heard on the Criticial Point system. At the same time the A34s were near Stubbs Island. An hour later, just before 5pm, Scotty reported that they were off Bold Head. Alex added the clarification that they were foraging just east of Bold Head.
The A50s lent us their beautiful calls and echolocation as they foraged right to the mouth of the Tsitika River in Robson Bight. They left the Bight at 6:35pm.
The A34s were still hanging out in Blackfish Sound. At 6:28pm they made several echolocation bursts and then calls which were heard right up to 8:47pm. The A34s seemed in no hurry to move away in any real direction.
The A50s, meanwhile, were preoccupied moving back to the west but they were not alone. Perhaps now on the Cracroft Island shore the A25s came back within calling range at 6:38pm. They repeated their calls a while later. Were they calling to the A50s? The A50s turned east sometime before 8:18pm. Their calls echoed between the Strider, Main and Kaizumi systems. Perhaps spread out they were travelling in the middle of Johnstone Strait. From 8:33pm and 8:40pm calls were more definite and closer to Robson Bight.
Between 7pm and 9:19pm there was a lot of humpback activity in Blackney Pass. The humpback Inukshuk who started it off, “brought the party”. At 8:58pm, 3 other humpbacks appeared. There was lots of tail slapping, rolling, cartwheeling and breaches. Then! At 9:05pm, 20 meters off the Lab deck, the humpback Squall made a perfect bubble ring. When completed the head of this whale appeared in the centre. We heard the sounds associated with bubble net feeding too. We continued to hear the odd humpback sounds, even some close breathing, through the next hour.
The A50s seemed as though they might be between Cracroft and Vancouver Islands and from the Sophia Islands to Robson Bight. At 11:22pm, the A50s became excited. Calls after calls topped other calls. They then moved closer to Robson Bight.
Can’t really leave off there. Midnight came and the A50s then engaged in some really beautiful calls. It is here that we will start tomorrow’s summary.
