Still handicapped by the system glitch meant we could only hear locally and into Blackfish Sound. As a good back-up, Claire and Jérémie, ever watchful and listening, were still at CP.
The previous evening we lost track of the A25s before 7pm after they had passed through Blackney to the north and joined the A50s and A34s in Queen Charlotte Strait. But it was only the A50s and the A34s who ended up coming into Johnstone Strait.
Before and after midnight there was echolocation in Blackfish Sound then on the local hydrophone. A few blows were heard in Blackney Pass. The echolocation persisted in Blackfish along with very nondescript calls but it seemed that at least one group went through evidenced by CP reporting hearing blows over those of sea lions and the noise of boats.
With that understanding but with no hydrophones to distinguish defining calls we continued to concentrate on the echolocation continuing in Blackfish Sound and leave the counting of blows in the Strait to CP. The echolocation in Blackfish continued to 1:42am. By then CP was reporting a succession of blows. Between 1 and 2am CP reported that they had heard one group of at least 5 individuals crossing over from mid strait to the Vancouver Island side. These whales travelled eastward as they crossed. Claire and Jérémie found it somewhat difficult to hear and track blows because of the loud boats. CP and the Lab were aware that other whales, another group, was still in Blackfish Sound.
The “silent” hydrophones were so frustrating. A humpback created some comfort from 2am to 3am. The ocean still spoke!
At approximately 6:28am whales apparently approached Strider Beach. Our peculiar situation of having no access to our wireless network and therefore no access to our cameras was very strange. But the cameras were still streaming to the Internet and the explore.org audience came to our rescue when their comments about seeing the beginning of a rub at Strider was noticed later when our network was restored. We could by rolling back the Strider camera see what people were saying. A very social group was headed directly to the beach. We calculated that the rub lasted until 6:58am when whales were seen again heading west.
We still had some time to go, (and so did the whales), until our network was restored at 10am.
Boat Bay at 8:13am saw a “big group” heading toward CP both on the Cracroft Island side and the Vancouver Island side. They speculated that it was the A50s and queried if there were more. That was a good guess. CP followed this up by reporting at 8:48am they could now see blows off of the Sophia Islands. By 8:55am the number of orcas estimated to be in the Strait rose to twenty. The whales kept advancing past Kaizumi toward Kaiaksh Creek They were in small groupings as they continued west. The whales that passed CP mid strait at 9:34am were the A34s. So both groups, the A34s and the A50s, had definitely made it into the Strait during the early hours. As the whales moved into the rip west of CP and beyond to Big Bay our technical issue was resolved with the help of Quin Mcintire. We could hear! We could see! Yea!
We saw, confirmed once again by watchful CP, that the whales, even though favouring Hanson Island, had spread out. 10:13am, and a group now milled off Big Bay while another group was near Blinkhorn. Their collective calls continued during the westward movement toward the entrance to Weynton Passage.
As the whales oriented towards and even into Weynton Pass at 12:39pm other orcas were seen at the White Cliff Islets. The A34s and the A50s decided not to go fully into Weynton Pass but turned back. Once in the Strait they turned east. It was now 1:30pm and some whales favoured Hanson, others travelled more mid strait. They approached the rip by 2:45pm. This brought them off the entrance of Blackney Pass and in range of the Parson Island hydrophone. And it was now possible to see that it was the A50s who had taken the Hanson shore while the A34s claimed mid strait.
Just after 3pm the A50s were off CP. The A34s, still in the middle of the Strait, went east just past Kaikash and stopped. At 3:38pm they turned and went west. Just before 4pm, as the A34s continued west opposite Big Bay, the Wardens reported that the A50s were not quite as far east as the Sophia Islands.
An hour and a half later the A50s were off the Sophia Islands. The humpbacks Inukshuk, Freckles and baby came out of Blackney Pass and into the rip where Inukshuk breached about an hour later. Thirty minutes later Inukshuk returned to Blackney Pass.
During this time the A50s must have moved over to the Vancouver Island shore. Bend (A72) was seen tight to the shore by Katelyn’s parents at 6:35pm while they were camping near Kaikash Creek. From there the A50s must have managed to cross back over and sneak past CP and into Blackney Pass by 8:25pm. The only possible clue had been a few distant calls on the Parson Island hydrophone. They perhaps had gone west first along Vancouver Island, crossed and then slipped in close to the Hanson shore. They went north and were in Blackfish by 8:50pm. Their calls lasted until 10:39pm.
A last postscript: Kate heard “As” off Bere Point at 11pm. We had been left wondering who were the whales seen at the White Cliff Islets at 12:39pm? Were they perhaps the A23s and was the group Kate was hearing at 11pm? If it was the A23s, had they been waiting and then pulled west by the promise of the reported A73s, A35s and R18s who had been seen in Goletas Channel at 9:30am? Regardless, the groups all ended their day in Queen Charlotte Strait.
We began the late night shifts glad and confident we could once again hear into the night.
