Overnight, we started hearing welcome A5 calls in Blackfish Sound at 2:40am. Unlike the day prior, as the whales teetered at the edge of our acoustic range, by 3:45am it was clear that they had committed towards Blackney Pass, with nice clear calls audible and finally a small number of blows heard from our Lab deck from 4:30am to 5am. They continued into Johnstone Strait and to the east, visible on our Strider Rubbing Beach surface camera at 7:40am – it was the long-awaited A25s! They rubbed until just after 8am, and it was so lovely to finally see the unmistakeable hooked fin of A61 “Surge” alongside A85 “Cordero”, and her son A121 “Twilight”.
The A25s left our range to the east for a few hours, leaving us wondering how far they would travel before hopefully turning back to the west. In the meantime, the A23s and possible other groups had entered Blackfish Sound, shortly after midday. From her vantage up on Donegal Head, Alex Morton tracked their movements as they travelled slowly, milled, foraged, changed directions multiple times, lingering between Blackfish Sound and the western shores of the Broughton Archipelago. As she watched the Northern Residents, Alex also spotted a Minke whale in Blackfish Sound at 4:36pm.
At 4:40pm we heard the A50s very distantly on our Flower Island hydrophone, and then at 4:45pm, the A25s came back into our eastern range near the rubbing beaches. A-ha! Whales to the west and the east of our Lab. The A50s ceased being vocal after about 5pm, but we tracked the westing A25s through Johnstone Strait as evening came in. At 6:10pm, their clear calls rang out in Robson Bight, and we caught them on our remote cliffside camera continuing decidedly west in the Strait.
At 7:40pm, we heard more calls from the A50s in Blackfish Sound, this time joined by some I15 calls! A report from Scotty shortly after confirmed that the I4s were with the A50s. Now, the afternoon seems to make more sense. Were the A50s waiting for the I4s for those hours that they milled and foraged around the boundary of Queen Charlotte Strait and Blackfish Sound? The I4s were not particularly vocal, but they left us just enough acoustic breadcrumbs for us to track them into Johnstone Strait via Weynton Passage by 8:45pm. All the while, the A25s had continued west in the Strait, surely on their way to greet the two other groups.
From there until midnight, the only group to be vocal were the A50s, who travelled east in Johnstone Strait, giving clear calls and echolocation as they travelled. The whereabouts of the A25s and I4s would remain a mystery – did they head back out through Weynton, dip into Beaver Cove, or travel silently with the A50s easting through Johnstone Strait? They will probably tell us at some point.
Elsewhere, the A23s, I65s, A78, A34s and some R5s were seen near near Port Hardy by Coastal Raincoast Safaris earlier in the day. Plenty of Northern Residents in the area… we hope they come this way!
– words by Suzie
