An unexpected quiet night. The morning provided some answers to lingering questions as to where and what the orcas ended up doing. The last thing we were aware of was their very distant calls around the Telegraph Cove area. In the following silence the orcas, the A23s, A50s and A25s must have moved back towards the east. Incredibly for six hours, from 11:30pm on they did not make any sounds during their long, quiet travel.
As morning was breaking, with the fog already descended, we finally heard orcas at 5:47am. The A25s were near the Ecological Reserve and Surge or A61 soon appeared on the Strider remote camera at 6:27am. He had come from the west and his family’s calls, as he approached the beach area, had grown stronger.
While A61 milled offshore his niece, Cordero and her young one, Twilight, moved on to the beach at 6:56am. Half an hour before, the A50s, with loud clear calls and echolocation, had been approaching Critical Point in Robson Bight.
Surge had his turn at the beach at 7am. From there his small family slowly went further east after the rub was completed at 7:05am passing Main beach as they moved offshore. In a near perfect repeat of the day before they crossed from the eastern end at 8:08am over towards Cracroft Island and turned to the west. The A50s had already moved along to the Kaizumi area west of the Bight and by 8:05am were already being heard on the Cracroft Point hydrophone. CP heard blows mid strait opposite them and by 8:28am both the A50s and the A23s were heard calling together.
CP, unlike Blackney Pass, had some visibility and this allowed them to see Bend (A72) and her baby off to their right in the rip. As the whales shifted toward the entrance to Blackney Pass, calls could be heard on the Parson Island system. Parson Island and Hanson Island frame the entrance along with Cracroft Island. In the first group getting ready to enter was A72, the baby and A84. It was now 8:34am. A few Dalls porpoise were near Bend and baby. The beautiful calls, a mix of both the A50s and the A23s told us that both groups were staging their entrance. Indeed when CP looked at their photos the A23s’ Midsummer and her three year old were there too. Fife, A60, travelled tight to the Hanson Island shore. By 8:50am all had cleared into Blackney Pass.
The A50s led into Blackney Pass and at 8:52am we could hear their calls on the local hydrophone. Remember it was foggy! The progression of their blows informed us that they were headed north to Blackfish Sound. Soon the calls of the A23s told us that they were just behind the A50s. By 9:13am, blows could no longer be heard. Both groups had cleared into Blackfish Sound.
This was just shortly before we became aware of the A25s once more back in Johnstone Strait. The “Cliff” Research site on Cracroft Island across from Robson Bight saw them go by close to shore at 9:32am. They were, of course, going west.
From there they shifted more to mid strait and by 10:06am were east of CP. Big tall Surge was in the lead as they angled toward Blackney Pass. The baby breached when opposite CP. Calls preceded their entrance to Blackney Pass at 10:20am.
With slightly better visibility now, the Lab saw Surge mid channel opposite Parson Bay at 10:30am. Six minutes later while opposite Compton Island he merged with the other two members of his family. By 10:45am they achieved Blackfish Sound and were gone.
From this point on we relied on reports from other sources.
At 10:28am the majority of the orcas were off Bold Head at the western end of Blackfish Sound. This was most likely the A50s and A23s. The A25s had yet to catch up with them.
At 10:42 the A42 group was reported to be at Francisco Point on Quadra Island headed north. Still so very far away but the direction was encouraging.
At 12:07pm Sailcone reported four Bigg’s orcas in Knight Inlet westing by Minstrel Island. No identification was offered.
At 12:10pm the Mystery found a large group of orcas at Foster Island. This would be the A50s and A23s. The A25s, still far behind but still within range of our Flower Island hydrophone in Blackfish Sound, called out around 12:40pm when other orcas were seen between Foster Island and Lizard Point.
By 1:15pm the Northern Residents were going west from Lizard Point according to the whale watch boat the Mystery.
This was not the only activity. At 1:33pm whales were seen in Gordon Channel far to the west. Port Hardy is not too far away from there. This was most likely the A34s though not immediately identified they were later.
At 3:38pm Dylan, now working for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), saw the A50s at Black Bluff. Westward movement was steadily progressing.
These are Kate Brauer’s own words about what she observed at Bere Point:
“The A50s & A23s appeared at Bere, from the east, at 3:48. A60 in the lead, a mile or so offshore. He never came into the beach to rub, but all the others had themselves a decent rub, for just under an hour. Which was amazing, considering the more than 60 humans near the point and spread down the beach for a couple of city blocks! As usual, the whales moved away from the crowds, spending most of their time near our camp, way down by the kelp bed. As the A50s, and A23s moved off the beach, headed west, more whales appeared from the west, at 5:20.
Mackays had heard that orcas were traveling down Goletas around 10am, so assuming it was them. No IDs yet, just going through hundreds of photos, so will get back to you on that. At any rate, they headed for the rubbing beach with full intent! It felt like two groups, several Big males. All piled into the beach to rub, each group stayed at the beach for less than 10 minutes. At that point the humans were really moving around a lot, running down the beach to pursue the whales who stayed away from the main crowd of humans near the point. After their short rub, then turned and headed into the descending fog, back towards Malcolm Point. Lost sight of them at 5:45pm.”
The parts of Kate’s story about so many people on the beach is disheartening. So much effort has gone into the continued protection of the rubbing beaches within the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve that it defies logic that the beach at Bere Point (discovered years after the creation of the Ecological Reserve) is not afforded the same consideration.
The A34s who were identified earlier as they headed east in Gordon Channel were possibly the whales from the west that Kate mentioned. It would be nice to think they came “down” to reconnect with the others.
Our “day, at least the orca part of it, was done before Noon but it turned out to be a lovely sunny day after the fog lifted so who can complain?
