August 24th 2026
The day began with a few faint calls drifting onto Flower Island at 5:15am, some of which sounded like they were from the A4 pod. The calls grew slightly before fading away by 5:26am.
At 9am, two groups of orcas quietly slipped into Blackney Pass from the north, travelling south without a word and initially leaving us with a bit of an ID puzzle. After some back and forth, quality ID pictures, and outside verification, we finally had our answer: the A42s and A52s! We were particularly thrilled to see the A42s back in our waters.
But the A42s arrived one whale short. A94 (Mystery), who usually travels alongside them, was nowhere to be seen. He has not been confirmed with them since early June, which leads us to the question: where could he have ventured off to? He truly is living up to his name. We hope he rejoins the A42s soon!
The A42s and A52s cleared Blackney Pass by 9:35am, still keeping mostly quiet, though a little breaching opposite Big Bay was accompanied by one short N4 call. From there, they continued west through Johnstone Strait, crossing towards Blinkhorn before the groups eventually reached the Weynton area. By 12:39pm, the two groups were reported milling around near the Pearse Islands, seemingly in no particular rush to decide where to go next.
By early afternoon, they had made up their minds. The A52s appeared off Donegal Head at 1:53pm, heading west into Queen Charlotte Strait, followed shortly afterwards by the A42s closer to shore. A79 briefly abandoned the family formation to join the A52s further offshore, before both groups continued west and disappeared around Donegal by 2:36pm.
With the orcas in the western sun, the humpbacks evidently decided the evening belonged to them. Around 7:30pm Spongebob appeared near the lab and put on quite the show: rolling, waving his pecs and tail, and generally making sure everyone was watching.
Apparently Inukshuk was watching too. Exactly an hour later at 8:30pm, he seemed to decide that Spongebob had enjoyed the spotlight long enough and launched into a performance of his own: breaches, backflips, spins, tail slaps and pec slaps.
The orcas may have quietly slipped away for the afternoon, but between the return of the A42s and two humpbacks seemingly competing for our attention, we had plenty to smile about.
August 23rd 2026
Yesterday was a quiet day. The early morning hours brought with it a short spell of humpback vocals on Parson Island, lasting only a few minutes before the waters fell silent again.
Our first orcas of the day made a rather atmospheric entrance at 9:24am, when a group of fins seemed to rise out of the morning mist close, sighted by Scott and Peyton at the Cracroft Point platform. From a short video from CP, the lack of calls to give them away and those distinctly pointy dorsal fins, Bigg’s quickly became the leading suspicion. By 10:01am, they had entered Blackney Pass, although exactly who they were remained a mystery, despite a swirl of theories.
They took their time moving north, taking long dives and surfacing occasionally to bob at the surface. Having seen them last near White Beach Pass, we thought they had slipped away by 10:34am, only for them to pop back into Blackney half an hour later! This time, with the help of ID photos taken by our team and some insight from our friends outside the lab, we finally had our answer: our mystery group was the T069D’s.
The T069D’s cleared Blackney Pass shortly after 11am and were later reported rounding the Weynton Islands towards Johnstone Strait. Apparently still undecided on their plans for the day, they turned back west south of Weynton Island around 1:26pm, before heading through West Pass towards the Stephonsons. By 3:44pm, they had made their way past Alert Bay and towards the western end of Cormorant Island.
Upon dusk, Inukshuk decided to give us a little show with some tail slaps and pec slaps, a wonderful wrap to end the day. It was decidedly quiet, apparently even the whales need a Sunday, though the T069Ds did their best to keep us guessing about who they were and what they were up to.
