Momoko was on shift until 3am. Nothing happened, “nothing” she said with emphasis when she handed over the Lab to Kabir. Thirty-three minutes later Tomoko identified the A23 calls in Blackfish Sound. Calls and echolocation continued in the fog until blows were first heard off the entrance to Blackney Pass at 5:17am. CP counted ten coming out from Blackney. This group went east along the Cracroft Island side. It was still quite dark at 5:28am but Claire saw at least nine whales including 3 males and made a guess that this was the A23s with the A25s.
A minute later, more blows. These seven relaxed whales were resting at the surface. Looking at the photos the two males in the group resembled A55 and A80. There was a little one and the conclusion was that this was the A34s minus the A62s. Afterwards, at 5:50am, and a few spyhops, they travelled east slowly. The kayak camp at the Sophia Islands heard the orcas pass by in the fog at 6:52am and added the comment that the large group was in “no rush”.
The day before the A34s who had been in Queen Charlotte Strait and had reconnected with the A50s, A23s and A25s twelve hours previously at Bere Point were now here back in Johnstone Strait. However, they would not stay for long.
The Sophia Islands’ camp, at 9:17am, reported that orcas were headed back to CP and when they arrived there at 9:35am, their intent was still very slow. CP could hear their “whistling” at the surface. A55 was in the lead and A80 at the “back”. Ever so slowly they headed to Blackney Pass. As they cleared into Blackney A5 calls were heard on the Critical Point system from the groups who had preceded the A34s to the east.
Again it was a super foggy day in Blackney Pass. Their calls had ceased shortly after entering and we had to rely on their blows, first heard at 10:01am, to tell us how they were progressing through the Pass. Unlike when they arrived in Johnstone Strait they now did not take long, just 13-15 minutes to return to Blackfish Sound. By 11:18am they were reported off the Egeria Shoals. From there they carried on to Queen Charlotte Strait. They have taken on such an interesting role this summer.
While all of this was going on the A23s and A25s had gotten far enough east to go for an energetic thirty-five minute rub at Strider starting at 10:45am and ending at 11:20am. There was lots of echolocation during this rub and on the underwater camera, maybe 1 or 2 large Chinook salmon swam by. Hard not to imagine that this great rub offered also a meal or two as well!
Though A61 was seen, Fife (A60) was not. Had he stayed further behind or offshore? After the rub we were immediately uncertain as to whether the whales had gone east or west. Most likely they made a big enough arc which took the A23s closer to the Cracroft Island side. At 12:09, the Cliff saw the A23s pass quickly. Then shortly afterwards the Cliff reported seeing A60 and perhaps five others with even more blows heard beyond the fogline.
The A50s were a bit of a mystery because they had not obviously been part of the groups who had come through Blackney earlier and they had not been part of the rub. We first heard them at 11:40am about twenty minutes after others were already opposite Kaizumi after their rub. Had they come in through Weynton?
As the whole scene shifted to the west, CP was still struggling with the fog, especially to the west, but could hear distant blows on the Hanson Island side moving toward Blackney Pass. As they did so there were clear A30 calls on the Parson Island hydrophone at 12:45pm. Ten minutes later, at 12:54pm, the A30s independently filed north in Blackney Pass. Calls were heard on the local hydrophone and a few figures could be made out in the now patchy fog. Momoko found Bend’s distinctive fin opposite the Lab mid channel and could see that others of the group were further over but for the most part due to the obscuring conditions it was all “big fin here”, “small fin there” reports from outside on the deck of the Lab. The A50s cleared into Blackfish Sound by 1:11pm.
We took advantage of the thinning fog to prepare to get Regina on her way to Telegraph Cove. It had been so good to see her even though the visit was all too brief. Momoko and Tomoko went on the ride as well. Boat driver Olivia would later drop them off at CP to help Claire and Jérémie and pick up Sullivan to bring him back to the Lab. Part of the reason to take them the long way round was to avoid the whales. But whales were everywhere!
A lot was still happening in the Strait while the A50s were going north. Six orcas were seen by CP approaching from the Sophia Islands. By 1pm, these orcas were spread out, taking time to forage or mill about opposite CP and in the rip just off the entrance to Blackney Pass. A60 was identified along with A95 and A126 so it was understood that these were the A23s who had been seen earlier by the Cliff further back in the Strait about forty-five minutes before.
There were a lot of kayakers around as A60, who had foraged in the rip to the right of CP, pushed further west. A95 then moved into the rip amongst the kayakers, some too close. A95 was accompanied now by Dalls Porpoise.
A persistent fog line along Hanson Island obscured the A23s as they all moved west by 1:26pm. At this point there was no sign of the A25s. Hanson Island however was ringed with orcas on both sides with the A50s heading west in Blackfish and the A23s taking straitside.
2pm, and the Lab was reporting A5 calls on Kaizumi. Cetus (the Cliff) could see three orcas, one of whom was a male, near Kaiaksh Creek on the Vancouver Island side. It was the lagging A25s, also going west.
The A34s were now off Lizard Point in Queen Charlotte Strait and also heading west.
By 2:30pm, A60 had arrived at the western end of Hanson Island where he started to cross over to Vancouver Island. The rest of the A23s followed, cutting ahead of the advancing A25s. The A50s, (remember them?) were now between the Egeria Shoals and Donegal Head.
In the next few minutes the A23s approached Blinkhorn on the Vancouver Island side. From there they would pass Telegraph Cove and enter Beaver Cove for a mid afternoon forage. The A25s, still behind, never made it as far as Beaver Cove but by 4:19pm they passed Telegraph Cove and then followed the A23s as they moved out of Beaver Cove and back across towards Weynton Island just northwest of Hanson Island.
The afternoon was advancing.
The A34s by this time had moved on to Bowlder Point (where A80 had been seen by Dylan’s crew) to Black Bluff . It was now 4:30pm.
The A50s were pretty much staying in the same area off the western edge of Blackfish Sound mostly off Bold Head. This gave the A23s time enough to move towards them and were off the Plumper Islands by 6:12pm. They would eventually move through to Blackfish Sound and reconnect with the A50s.
Alex keeping an eye on what was happening in Blackfish texted the following: At 7:34pm she saw the A23s go past Stubbs Island headed across Donegal Head, spread out and travelling fast. Twenty minutes later, just before 8pm, the A50s were cruising across the top of Blackfish with the A23s still coming out from the direction of Weynton Pass. Both groups were aiming for the Queen Charlotte Strait corner of Donegal Head where they began fishing individually. An annoying sports fisher, paying particular attention to a startled A84, pushed in close to the preoccupied whales. By 8:10pm the two groups, the A23s and A50s merged and turned back to Blackfish looking like they might head to Weynton when they changed their minds and began to move east in Blackfish. It was now almost 8:30pm.
There was no clear indication that the A25s had bothered to come out of the Strait and join these two other groups.
We listened to the A50s and A23s as they advanced toward Blackney Pass, distant at first, issuing mostly resting calls, and a lot of echolocation. They were moving against the current which had only changed to the ebb at 8:17pm, just before they had changed direction in favour of Blackfish Sound. By 9:40pm they had made it into Blackney Pass and Kabir and Serah began to follow their blows through the dark. Progress was slow, they seemed to be taking their time, stalling for a while opposite the Lab from mid channel to the farside. Just making things even more interesting a couple of humpbacks chose to come over close to the Lab as well. Before 10pm their calls and echolocation indicated that they were finally moving south towards Parson Island. Any calls heard at this point were those of the A50s.
In the Strait we heard fairly strong A5 calls and we took this to be the A25s who possibly elected to stay there and not go on the long circuit around Hanson Island and instead move east ahead of the arrival of the other two groups.
As the Blackney whales moved towards the entrance, the A23s opened up with more calls and the A50s became excited. Dolphins chimed in too before the whales made it into Johnstone Strait. CP heard the first blows at 10:49pm. The first group, consisting of eight individuals, passed CP by 11pm. The second, smaller group passed a few minutes later. Both groups went east.
There were incredible calls as all three groups, the A25s, A50s and A23s moved eastward. We still had the impression that the A25s were in the lead as A5 calls were first heard on Kaizumi and then very close on Strider. The whales seemed excited and active up until just past 11:30pm when the scene rather suddenly subsided over the next half hour.
Even though this day was done, the whales, after their disparate journeys around the area, stayed in the Strait, altogether once more.
One lingering mystery was an extra male who was seen in the Strait travelling with the A23s. We wondered if this might be A84 breaking away from his A50 group to spend time with other whales. We have seen this before. A6, A39 and others have done this. The separation is usually temporary and if it was A84 he possibly knew that the A23s would soon reconnect, as they did that evening, with the A50s.
