This day began to unfold at 2:37am when the orcas in Queen Charlotte Strait began to edge closer to the boundary of Blackfish Sound. Many groups were on the move. Once again the A50s ushered in the A23s, A25s, I15s through Blackfish Sound and into Blackney Pass in order to make passage to Johnstone Strait. The Rs of yesterday were part of the same movement but chose to enter through Weynton Passage, surprising us with their return as Rs are not often in the area and have a tendency to leave soon after arrival. This gave another day of their amazing calls! Just before the orcas’committed to their come back a humpback in Blackfish Sound drew attention with sounds and antics around 2:40am.
Passage through Blackney Pass began not long after. An “undefined” I15 group was well on the way towards Johnstone Strait by 3:26am. A5s followed while the A50s and another unidentified I15 group remained further behind. The number of blows passing was impressive. By 4:43am, the A5s, I15s and A50s were all in the Strait, as were the Rs, who had come around and in via Weynton Passage.
Once in the Strait most of the orcas travelled eastward. By 6am, the A5s and the Rs were off Robson Bight and by 6:30am the A5s joined company again with the Rs and began a rub at Strider Beach in the Ecological Reserve. At 6:50am the A25s shifted east to Main Beach. The A23s and Rs continued to be heard on the Strider hydrophone.
The I15s had remained behind closer to the entrance of Blackney Pass with the A50s and at 7:06am blows were heard going north in the fog. The groups left in Johnstone Strait now headed back to the west, while the calls of both the I15s and A50s were heard clearly on the Flower Island hydrophone in Blackfish Sound as they moved through Blackfish Sound to the west.
The Rs and the A5s made progress westward and at 8:30pm they were approaching Kaizumi. Just under an hour they were on the CP remote camera passing into Blackney Pass. Still foggy in Blackney all we could do was listen for their blows.
Off the western end of Blackfish where the A50s and I15s had gone, the picture was less clear as to what was happening. Concurrent reports had whales both going into Weynton at 10am and also 30+ passing Donegal Head, some close others further out. Apparently these whales floated with no particular direction then went west. Our vantage point further away at the southern end of Hanson Island did not lend much clarity nor the hydrophones in this case were not much help as well as there were few acoustic clues.
A division was apparent with the I15s going back to the Strait without the A50s. Later we found out that the G2s and the C10s spent the day in Queen Charlotte Strait so one possibility was that these groups had arrived off Donegal in the fog around the same time the A50s and I15s had travelled from Johnstone Strait through Blackfish Sound. After some resorting the I15s chose to go back to Johnstone Strait, the A50s elected to stay and the two other groups, the C10s and G2s turned back. We do know that Jared Towers was with the G2s off George’s Bank for the day and that the Naiad Explorer saw both the C10s and the G2s in Queen Charlotte Strait.
Perhaps more information will be forthcoming. Everyone was hampered by the foggy conditions.
Piecing together some of the known information for the whales in Johnstone Strait from mid morning onwards. At 10:50am there were I15 calls, no location but the source was the Strider Rubbing Beach hydrophone which listens to a lengthy part of the Strait. The I15s who had come through Weynton had entered Johnstone Strait. Sometime later, at 12:49pm CETUS commented on the seven whales heading east mid strait south of Cracroft Point. No identification was offered. At 1:39pm there were telltale I15 calls shared between the Kaizumi and CP systems. This may have been a clue that the I16s, the I15 group who had maintained a presence previously, may have been joined by other I15 matrilines, perhaps when they had circled back into Weynton amidst the divergent groups going west and south (towards the Strait). Hard to hold onto all these swirling ideas but it actually makes sense that this was what had developed.
At 2pm the Rs declared their presence once more and the CP remote camera discerned very tiny whales in the distance near Blinkhorn. The sighting was fleeting but the movement was certainly to the east.
Our best clue that other I15 groups had come into Johnstone Strait was when, at 2:12pm we watched the I65s rub at Kaizumi. This group, followed by a few unidentified whales continued after their rub to the east.
At 2:38pm SeaSmoke Whale Watching offered identification of the A23s, A25s and I16s which was helpful. At 2:57pm, the CP remote camera detected whales at Little Kaikash on the Vancouver Island shore. They were headed west. The situation was developing into one of merging groups. Those who had stayed in the Strait, the A5s and Rs travelling back west and the I15s who had made the journey around Hanson Island and picked up other family groups travelling east.
By 3:18pm there were 15 orcas eastbound off the entrance to Blackney Pass at the same time 5 orcas were seen heading west along the Vancouver Island shore. The whales had some serious sorting to do but then they, of course, and not us, knew exactly what they were about!
By 3:47pm, 12 orcas were observed heading east at Kaikash.
Another rub at Kaizumi happened at 4:36pm. This time we suspected the R18s. They left the beach to the east after a fairly substantial rub. The parade had perhaps finally settled on a direction!
At 5:25pm the A50s called from somewhere to the west. They had not gone back to Johnstone Strait and were not totally involved with the whales in Queen Charlotte Strait, just settling somewhere in between.
Part of the A23s, definitely A109, and some of the Rs rubbed at Strider starting at 6:10pm. The R18s then rubbed at 6:34pm for another four minutes and then left to the west. The A23s went east briefly away from the beaches soon after.
After which all the whales made a trek back to the west and entered Blackney Pass just after 8pm. They came through in various groupings mid channel so despite the fading light photos were possible. After they passed we spent the next while sorting out the different individuals. The I16s came through in the lead followed by a second group which included A61, his A25 family and the A23s. A60 trailed this group more or less on his own but ahead of the R13s and R18s. Finally the I65s took up the rear. It was not until we looked more closely at the pictures that Momoko identified the two brothers from the I27s. Like the I65s they had not been in yet this year and it was reassuring to see them once more, The only I15 group not readily seen were the I4s. Their profile, without I76, is quite different. They too could easily have been there, just lost to us in the crowd .
While the orcas were passing a humpback began a series of very close bubblenet feeding. It sounded like he was right on top of the hydrophone.
Dolphins had a presence throughout the day and their calls in Johnstone Strait ended the day just after 10:30pm.
Whew,what a day!
