The night was quiet and calm. Not a peep was heard from the orcas since 7pm the day before. When mid morning arrived, we finally received a report from Alex Morton that a group of six orcas were between herself at Donegal Head and the entrance to Knights Inlet travelling south. Still hearing no calls, still out of range of our hydrophone network, we had yet to figure out who they were. Around the same time, Megan received a report from Anthony Bucci that the A50’s were slowly travelling south between White Cliffs and Bold Head so the assumption was that this was who Alex had seen earlier.
Not even ten minutes after those reports, we heard our first calls of the day. But these calls were from Johnstone Strait. At 11:41am we were able to identify A5 calls coming from the Kaizumi hydrophone, hearing to the east. These whales were finally coming back from their sojourn in the lower Johnstone Strait. We tracked their calls as they moved west, reaching offshore from Main rubbing beach at 12:20pm. Luckily, before we turned off this recording, we heard calls on Flower Island! Finally, At 12:50pm we were able to identify the calls as being A1 calls, which would fit suspicions of them being the A50’s.
At 1pm, Helena relayed that there were seven Northern Residents heading west from Swanson Island further into Queen Charlotte Strait while the A25s were still following the Vancouver Island shore west and now approaching the Ecological Reserve from the east..
The calls on Flower Island paused with just some occasional echolocation.
At 1:30pm, the A25s were at Strider Rubbing beach for a rub. A technical glitch meant we could only watch the calls and chuffs on our spectrogram. From 1:40pm, the calls from the A25s were heard on both the Strider and Main rubbing beach hydrophone. Eagle Eye, overlooking the Strait from their Cliff research site was also keeping track. The calls became clear and loud as the A25s milled about in the area. At 2:05pm the A25s were seen by the Strider surface camera and Jianna was able to identify A61 (Surge). The rub began at 2:10pm. It was a short rub, having only lasted two minutes. But it was remarkable to watch A85 (Cordero) twist, turn and spiral. She was not rubbing and her movement was unusual. Their calls remained clear as they headed offshore into Johnstone Strait continuing west. By 2:30 their calls became distant and echoey.
As their calls faded, Eagle Eye reported at 2:45pm that the 25’s were approaching Critical Point. Their calls never became loud and clear here, but we were able to follow them using the remote camera as they continued their journey west, their calls fading by 4pm. Eagle Eye spotted the A25’s with A61 leading them as they passed the Eco Summer kayak camp just outside of the Western Boundary of the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. Then later echolocation was heard on the Kaizumi hydrophone as the A25s progressed along the Vancouver Island shoreline. Until 4:35pm we listened to their distant calls on the Kaizumi hydrophone amidst all the boat noise. By 5:35pm, we heard their faint calls on the Cracroft Point hydrophone marking the continued progression westward. The tides in Blackney Pass had changed to an ebb at 4:30pm but the A25s elected to continue to stay in the Strait. Their calls ended for us by 6:05pm.
Our attention had been diverted by the echolocation heard on Flower Island at 6:15pm. The A50s had seemingly not ventured far away and were still somewhere off the the western edge of Blackfish Sound and Queen Charlotte Strait.
By 10:15pm the A25s, still Straitside the A25s had reached and entered Beaver Cove west of Telegraph Cove. An additional later report mentioned they had exited Beaver Cove and had begun to journey back east. They did so silently.
Afterwards, the Lab listened to several incredible bubble net feeding efforts on Flower Island with the chatter of dolphins in the background.
