The A62s spent the evening, night and day in Queen Charlotte Strait. At 12:16pm they came in for a rub at Bere Point. They would not return and were seen much later in the day off Round Island near Port Hardy at 3pm.
The rest of the Northern Residents, the A54s, the A23s, A25s, the I4s and I65s were still going east in the Strait after midnight. Remarkably, the distant calls lasted until 3:48am. Three hours passed during which the orcas turned. At 6:45am at least three went in on the Strider beach as they moved to the west. It was, as we have come to expect, quite foggy and visibility once again poor. Despite this A61 (with his very distinctive dorsal fin) along with his niece Cordero and her Twilight (A121) took a slightly offshore path to the west. Whistles attested to how relaxed the whales were while following the Vancouver Island shore. Distant calls on the Strider system lasted until 7:22am The lead orcas reached Robson Bight, still whistling, at 7:30am. This general movement carried on past Kaizumi by 9:35am. A60 was seen on the CP remote camera foraging east of CP surrounded by dolphins.
The expectation when orcas were sighted in Blackney Pass at 10:14am was that it would be Residents but we quickly understood that it was Bigg’s orcas, specifically the T090s with T002B. They travelled from Johnstone Strait to Blackfish by 10:49am after a few characteristically long dives. There were no calls.
The Residents were taking a while to reach the CP area. In fact, some of the residents turned before close calls at Critical Point were heard at 12:54pm. Only faint calls were heard on the Cracroft system.
An unidentified humpback surfaced very close to the Lab and never surfaced again before going around Burnt Point.
Between 1:31pm and 1:50pm two rubs at Strider occurred in quick succession. The vacillating orcas were once again west of the Bight at 3:27pm and by 5pm this rather more serious westerly attempt resulted in their blows being seen on the very far side between Kaikash and Little Kaikash on the remote CP camera at 5pm. Olivia returning with Jordan after a laundry and gas run saw the whales off Blinkhorn twenty minutes later. They were still spread out. By 5:45pm these orcas were off Telegraph Cove but crossing towards the Hanson Island side. The calls were still a mix of A54s, A23s, A25s and I15s. Louder A5 calls at 6:08pm hinted that the orcas were eastbound yet again. The CP cam helped us see the distant but approaching whales off Hanson Island’s Big Bay area. From there they came to the entrance to Blackney Pass. It was their turn to head into Blackney and go north just as the Bigg’s had done earlier. They were in our view by 6:55pm. Dinner time for us so everyone either managed to grab a bite to go or forestalled dinner temporarily in favour of watching the whales go by. After a few small scattered groups, a good sized group followed on the very far side, too far and therefore very hard to figure out. Going through we concluded everybody, the I65s, I4s, A54s, A23 and A25s, was finally on the same page. The next page was, of course, Blackfish Sound by 7:20pm. The urge to turn became evident because twelve minutes later they re-entered Blackney. Only this time it was just the A54s and A5s. The I15s were not present. They were well on their way to Johnstone Strait after 9:44pm. Calls remained faint until 10:46pm. Perhaps they went west?
We had the treat of seeing a large Pacific Octopus again on the underwater camera at Strider. This is the second. Also the first sea lion hauled out on Hanson Island. They have been hauling out across the way on the Parson Light’s rocks but this was a first on this side. As Jérémie said “winter is coming!”
Callum, who has been our extraordinary cook, left. After helping with the laundry in Port McNeill he went off to have a pizza and beer, probably very happy to have someone else cook. We will miss him, and not just for the delicious dinners. We wish him well on his journey.
