Oh boy! A lot happened today and not all of it was clearly understood.
Let’s start with what we do know.
The early hours:
At 12:39am Bigg’s orcas began calling in Johnstone Strait. The calls soon faded and ceased four minutes later.
At 3:40am a humpback made a few sounds.
Then at 5:36am, the A34s who had previously been lingering off the Blackfish Sound/ Weynton Passage Queen Charlotte Strait area, were back close enough to be heard. It was unclear as to where to source this brief exchange. Had their vacillation the evening before led them part way into Johnstone Strait undetected? An hour later, at 6:33am they were definitely back off Blackfish Sound and for about half an hour more we continued to hear their distant calls until they drifted away into Queen Charlotte Strait.
Blackney Pass was shrouded in thick fog in the morning. Johnstone Strait was better so a crew got ready to redeploy the underwater camera at Strider and install a new camera at Critical Point.
While they got their equipment and tools ready, Bigg’s orcas were seen moving west through the rip off of the entrance to Blackney Pass. The Bigg’s, later identified as the T090s, would carry on efficiently past Big Bay on Hanson Island by 7:15am, all the way past Alert Bay and on past Port McNeill by 8:40am. They were last reported off the western end of Malcolm Island a while later at 10:52am.
The Sonic returned from its successful mission to the Ecological Reserve and we said our good-byes to Dylan. The boat was to later return with Regina Thomas come for a short stay. It had been 6 years since she was last here with her two boys. This time she came on her own. The Sonic then took Jérémie to CP to join Claire.
Meanwhile, clear A34 calls had resumed briefly on the Flower Island system in Blackfish Sound at 7:21am. After which, the A34s then retreated back to Queen Charlotte Strait and were not seen until the afternoon when at 2pm they were off Lizard Point. The purpose of their lack of direction became clearer after they regrouped around 3:15pm. Less than an hour later, A30 calls were heard on Flower Island! Company had come for the waiting A34s.
From 4pm until 5:40pm there was a swirl of A30 and A34 calls, sometimes excited, sometimes closer, sometimes farther away but regardless the meeting of the two groups was steadily advancing toward Blackney Pass. The A34s ushered in their A1 companions not only into view of the Lab but some elected to take the A30 group all the way into Johnstone Strait before returning to their own family.
CP was able to identify the A67s (of the A34 group) as the escorts and watched as they turned back into Blackney Pass. The two males, perhaps A55 and A80, who had been in the lead of the parade through Blackney Pass were lost in the confusion of whales going in several directions. A80 was seen a bit later breaching before his A34 group, including A55, now back together, disappeared around Burnt Point and back into Blackfish Sound.
The escorting and subsequent reshuffling took place between 5:04pm and 8:05pm.
A72 (Bend) had been clearly identified passing the Lab so we knew for certain that the A50s (of the A30s) were among the group being led in by the A34s. We clung to the few certainties we were given.
As CP watched as the orcas moved east in the Strait. The A34s, at first vocal as they moved back to Blackfish Sound, now went quiet. They possibly had another agenda to attend to after successfully dropping off the A30 group.
As evening approached the sunset was now casting lovely colours on the sea and sky as a small group approached Critical Point at 8:36pm. Thanks to the timely install of the camera we could now witness the whales at this lovely location. These 4 orcas from the A30s were accompanied by a few dolphins and for a while they hesitatingly shifted back and forth off the headland before continuing to the east. At Strider they had a short rub from 10pm to 10:08pm. It was now dark. They moved on past Strider, all the while still calling, toward the Main Rubbing beach. It was now midnight and another day was about to start with some new and exciting developments. The A34s, off to the west, had some new surprises in store.
