The whales weren’t detected until 11:25am in Blackfish Sound. The calls were coming from the A50s. Heard on and off until 1:47pm. We were beginning to think they had gone north back to Queen Charlotte Strait when the A50s were spotted from the Lab heading south in Blackney Passage at 2:16pm. The orcas passed by the Lab slowly in mostly a tight configuration. A50, A84, A99 and A123 clustered for a while just ahead of A72 and her two, A108 and A131. Pacific White-sided Dolphins (PWD) surfaced in Blackney Passage at the same time as the orcas and headed south at speed, passing the orcas. There were no orca vocalisations until after they passed from our view at 2:55pm. The orcas were seen in a resting line on the Cracroft Point remote camera with dolphins around them at 3:11pm. At 3:45pm, they started moving further offshore towards the Vancouver Island side of Johnstone Strait.
At 4:08pm, the A50s had made their way across the Strait and began rubbing on Kaizumi rubbing beach. After a ten-minute rub, they began heading further east. At 5:11pm, now further east, they were mid-channel and non-directional. This continued and they were again seen with a group of dolphins.
At 5:40pm, we could hear echolocation on the Strider rubbing beach hydrophone and at 5:54pm, the A50s began rubbing at Strider. Again, the dolphins were seen with the orcas. The rub ended at 6:38pm, at which point the A50s headed west.
At 7:58pm, the A50s were again heard on the Kaizumi rubbing beach hydrophone. Followed by reports from Cetus at 8:12pm of them around Swaine Point and from Scotty at 8:32pm of the A50s still with PWD, further west on the Cracroft Island side,under the “Cliff” site. At 9:24pm, orcas were heard on the Parson Island hydrophone and a few minutes later, blows were heard from the Lab deck in Blackney Pass. There were at least 7 blows heard so these were highly likely to be the A50s heading north in Blackney Pass. We continued to hear them on the hydrophones until 10:33pm. Dolphins could also be heard during this passing. It’s noteworthy that dolphins were seen or heard near the orcas for every sighting.
The A23s & A25s continue to be reported in the Salish Sea near Quadra Island. Megan reported these orcas were in Sutil Channel heading to Whaletown and again later in Sutil Channel at Marina reef.
Margo Venton from Ecojustice was visiting OrcaLab and some of us spent the evening in conversation with her and Mark Worthing about legal protections for orcas both locally and around the world. We also mounted the restored ‘Welcome Home Springer’ sign on the Lab, which was in need of repairs and fresh paint along with the addition of another baby to the sign! As the sign was hung, Paul said “Springer will surely have to show up now.”
