Our day started early, and with great excitement, as we began hearing calls from the C8s again on Kaizumi Rubbing Beach around 5am. They had returned from the east, seemingly without the A23s and A25s.
By 5:20am we could hear their calls independently on Parson Island, an indicator that they were likely to choose Blackney Passage. Sure enough, a few minutes later, we could hear their blows tracking north. Unfortunately for us, it was just too dark to make out their fins. Interestingly, as they entered Blackfish Sound heading west, a different group of orcas came into Blackney just before 6am, and with the dawn light we began to recognize their dorsals as the A34s. They had crossed paths with the C8s without so much as one vocal exchange from our perspective.
The A34s silently made their way into Johnstone Strait, and began calling shortly after they passed the lab at 6:12am. By 6:34am Katie, on the platform at Cracroft Point, could identify A80 and A55. The A34s tracked west along the Hanson shoreline, back towards Weynton Passage, then doubled back again to the east, moving more mid-Strait, and rested there for 45-minutes or so, spy-hopping and rolling and milling at the surface. Eventually, they turned yet again around 7:40am and crossed to the Vancouver Island shore heading west towards Bauza Cove at 9am.
The C8s, meanwhile, had come in through Weynton Passage and crossed to Telegraph Cove by 7:30am. From there, they doubled back to the Stephenson Islands and finally grouped up with the A34s off Weynton Island at 11am. From here, all agreed and steadily moved east and headed for Blackney Passage, opting to take the narrow pass we call ‘Little Blackney’ off the south edge of the island. A55 was in the lead.
The fog had well and truly set in, but we could hear their calls and blows as they all travelled north in Blackney from 11:15am. Fortunately for us, they chose the Hanson shoreline. We saw some beautiful scenes of the C8s and A34s resting 100m off the lab for a good while. Their dorsals visible despite the thick fog rolling by. A treat for all of us on deck, and those joining us through our live streams across the globe. Eventually, the A34s headed straight to Blackfish Sound, clearing our view by 1219. The C8s, however, doubled-back in Blackney Pass, and moved over to the far end by Parson Light, obscured from our view by fog but researcher Jared Towers kept us updated as to their whereabouts. Eventually, they followed suit into Blackfish Sound by 1pm.
Olivia, watching from Donegal Head, could see A55 by himself and the A34s and C8s together in the western end of Blackfish Sound at 1:46pm. The C8s moved over to the Swanson shoreline and stalled there for a while around 2:20pm. The A34s continued west.
As if that weren’t enough orca in the area, the T060 and T090 Bigg’s orcas were seen in Blackfish Sound, angling to Hanson Island. The T060s made it to Burnt Point but remained just out of our eyesight before turning round at 4:40pm. The T090s headed straight through Weynton, then hugged the Hanson Island shoreline in Johnstone Strait before crossing to Cracroft Point. They passed just metres from the platform there just after 5pm, and continued on east along the Cracroft shore.
Meanwhile, the Northern Resident groups had made some decisions. The C8s cleared to the west into Queen Charlotte Strait at 3:10pm, and were westing off Trinity Bay on the north side of Malcom Island at 4:45pm. The A34s travelled with them for a while, but turned at Lizard Point and were heading back to the east towards Blackfish Sound around the same time.
After a little quietness, we heard faint calls on our Flower Island hydrophone at 8:16pm, confirmed by Scotty as the A34s off Egeria Shoal next to Swanson Island. By 8:44pm they had made a move towards Weynton Passage, with the A67s in the lead. They took their time, entering Johnstone Strait around 11pm and slowly tracking east. By the close of day, they sounded on the far Vancouver Island shore, passing somewhere around Kaikash Creek.
To wrap things up, we received a report of the A23s and A25s down in Desolation Sound for the entire day, near Cortez Island. They had likely split from the C8s in the early morning, opting to continue their journey east. A busy day of looping, criss-crossing whales – it is truly August!
