At Noon we were still engulfed in fog – at least the far side of Blackney Pass was, and so when there came the report of two orcas over by Red Point (opposite the Lab) we could only use our imaginations as to who it might be and what they were doing. Conditions only improved when the two orcas had moved into the entrance of Blackney Pass. It was there that the camp at Cracroft Point saw and reported them at 12:24pm.
By this time we suspected that they might be the two brothers from the T060s, T060D and T060E. These two very often travel together separately from the rest of their group. They had been around the day before so it was an educated guess which turned out to be correct. It helped that Jared Towers, dropping off Dylan at the Lab, had a quick look at the pictures sent over by Shari from CP.
These two brothers were, as it turned out, very hungry. They moved over closer to the Vancouver Island side and then went east. They actually killed a sea lion around 2pm. This was witnessed by the on scene whale watch boats who remarked that they could hear actual bones crunching. Must have been quite the experience for the passengers. Quite brave actually for these two orcas to take on a sea lion who are big, have sharp teeth and are very strong as well. After dispatching one sea lion they went after at least one other about half an hour later.
Perhaps finally satisfied they turned back and went west to Kaikash by 3:05pm, then up to Blinkhorn by 3:30pm, past Telegraph Cove by 4:38pm and finally over to Alert Bay by 6:25pm. This was the last reported sighting.
The evening at the Lab and in the Strait was so lovely and fog free. The air was clear and in the Pass several Dalls porpoise gathered for an evening meal. The humpback Argonaut had been going back and forth earlier in the day and in the evening sunset Quartz followed suit as the Lab’s fishermen tried their luck once again.
An eagle earlier had been successful but the weight of his catch was such that he was forced to swim it to shore after having failed to become airborne. All the while, the amazing run of pink salmon continues and their “plopping” jumps could be heard constantly on the hydrophones. “If only”… say our fishermen.
