All good days here start at night. The long awaited arrival of the A54s began around 2am. A54 or Minstrel (aka Blinkhorn) is the sister of Clio (A50). Since the death of their mother Tsitika (A30) in 2013 the two sisters and their families have been sometimes travelling quite separately from each other. The separation was a gradual process. Last year, Clio kept her family on the North Coast while Minstrel came here to Johnstone Strait.
This, therefore, felt like a big event. The two sisters together again. It might go a long way to explain the excited calls at 2:46am in Blackfish Sound. With a lot of echolocation the two groups of the former A30s drew closer to Blackney Pass. It was Katelyn’s last night and it was going to be a long one. She went out onto the deck to listen for blows. From 3:27am on she heard whales blowing from Parson Island to Harbledown Island. The whales were travelling mid strait. Because there were still A30 family calls in Blackfish Sound we knew the two groups must have arrived together earlier. By 4am, with calls still happening in Blackfish, the first group made it through to the entrance to Blackney Pass. The excitement in the Lab was real as the understanding that both sister groups must certainly be in the area. The A54s, in the entranceway, became excited – they were coming home to Johnstone Strait after their long absence.
While recording we had to endure two cruise ships passing through. The current had been in flood for a while and the tide was very high. Claire, sitting on the deck at CP, waiting to hear blows come out of Blackney, actually was washed by the wake of the first cruise ship. At 4:30am she and Jérémie heard blows. The lead cluster consisted of three orcas. Five more were to follow ten minutes later. There were still calls in Blackfish.
The second cruise ship came past CP at 4:45am. Claire did not get splashed this time. The A54s, perhaps carefully, and somewhat slowly shifted into the Strait toward Vancouver Island. By 5am they were west of Robson Bight with someone close to the Vancouver Island shore. The continuing echolocation in the Strait was matched by continuing echolocation in Blackfish Sound. At 5:24am, the calls next to Vancouver Island were loud and the echolocation in Blackfish much clearer. A short, pass-over rub happened between 5:29am and 5:34am before the orcas moved on east.
Before 6am the calls in Blackfish had grown faint. But in the Strait we now understood that the A25s were there too when their calls were heard. Had they been the first group of three blows that CP had heard back at 4:34am? There had been a hint of A5 calls around 4am in Blackfish Sound. The puzzle was being pieced together. Although the A25s most likely accompanied the A54s to Johnstone Strait. Clio’s group retreated and never came in. Whatever “meeting” the two sisters had must have occurred in Queen Charlotte Strait ending with Clio accompanying her sister only as far as Blackfish Sound.
Sure enough, from 6:25 to 7:03am, the hydrophone in Robson Bight relayed calls as the orcas advanced. Less than half an hour later, at 7:25am, the orcas went for a rub at Strider beach. It lasted until 7:30am.
The VHF radio announced at 7:35am that there were orcas off Bold Head and Bigg’s orcas at Village Island. The Bigg’s turned out to be the T019s with T018 and they would eventually come east through Blackfish and south through Blackney Pass but not before they circled the Bold Head area including Wedge Island in Knight Inlet where Scotty found them at 10:44am. They would not make it to Blackney Pass until 11:34am and to the Strait until 11:48am.
A lot was happening with the Resident orcas during the Bigg’s tour of the area.
Surge (A61) was seen on the remote camera east of Strider at 7:41am. He with others were “whistling” as they moved slowly back west toward Strider. The mood was very social, the whales very “chill”. After a few excited A54 and A25 calls and some tail slapping the whales turned east again. They angled toward the Main rubbing beach but did not do so for very long. By 8:43am they were coming back parallel to the Vancouver Island shore in the direction of Strider rubbing beach. These two rubbing beaches are not far from each other.
We could hear the inevitable dolphins and wondered how they would fare if encountering the Bigg’s orcas on their way to Johnstone Strait. There is not really a shortage of food for the Bigg’s who, although they have preferences, have a good choice of marine mammals to choose from.
The Cliff reported at 9:36am that Resident whales were on their way to Critical Point and Robson Bight. Others they noted were on the Cracroft Island side now too. Someone barely rubbed at Strider at 9:07am while moving west.
Surge had crossed. By 10:27am he was seen closer to Cracroft Island and ahead of the others while they paused in the Bight only to be on the move again at 10:44am as they passed the western boundary of the Ecological Reserve.
A more serious rub from 11:26am to 11:42am occurred west of the Bight. This was around the time the T019s and T018 were going south through Blackney Pass. Without a care about the Bigg’s orcas the A54s began to cross the Strait shortly after the Bigg’s entered the Strait and went east. These Resident orcas were indeed playful and carefree. Were they anticipating something?
Indeed after the A54s and A25s had moved into the rip west of CP, the A23s showed up off Donegal Head at 12:40pm. The A50s, meanwhile, were spotted further west off Lizard Point. The Naiad Explorer later reported that the A50s and A23s joined together while off Bold Head. Before 2pm, with the A54s and A25s now spread out from the Cracroft Island shore to Kaikash, the groups in Blackfish Sound were off Bold Head and soon moving toward Flower Island.
But as if a repeat of the night, the A50s did not come. They simply allowed the A23s to go forward on their own through Blackney Pass. They stayed off Bold Head.
The A23s went out of view of the Lab at 2:35pm and travelled fast into Johnstone Strait a few minutes later. The A54s suddenly closed ranks off of CP. The A23s came towards them and the groups looked like they would soon merge. Before they turned east, A61 with dolphins in tow, joined them.
The A69s (of the A23s) suddenly reappeared in front of CP at 3:04pm.
The afternoon consisted of whales and their calls everywhere in the Strait and included an hour-long rub by two individuals at Kaizumi beach. We have only a surveillance camera there now and quite limited visually. We deliberated on who the two orcas might be from the imperfect images and tentatively concluded that it was A95 and A43s.
By 4:40pm the whales were contemplating going west. By 5:05pm, the A25s were off Big Bay, the A54s mid strait almost opposite Kaikash. There was no immediate mention of the A23s but at 5:34pm CP wondered if the blows they could see east of Blinkhorn might be them as they could still see the A54s close together.
By 7:19pm the Johnstone Strait Residents were opposite Telegraph Cove and perhaps the patient A50s still off Bold Head. Calls continued in the Strait to 7:25pm all the while A30 calls were still heard on both the Flower Island and Double Bay systems.
After 8pm continuous calling from the A5s and A30s told us that the whales in the Strait had left the Strait for Blackfish Sound to join the A50s. Their combined calls grew fainter and fainter as they moved farther away into Queen Charlotte Strait. By 9:16 pm we could no longer hear them and the night closed in once again.
