A whole week has passed since the last update. This afternoon’s event has encouraged us to write again. At 3:36pm the A42s were heading west through the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve. A couple touched down at Strider Rubbing Beach as they hurried west. The remote underwater camera, just recently reinstalled by Jérémie, caught the image of one of the group passing over the smooth pebbles. The Cliff Research site, once alerted, then kept an eye on their progress. We heard distinctively clear echo location as they passed the Critical Point, the headland on the east side of Robson Bight. Just a couple of calls were voiced. The Cliff watched as the whales on the Vancouver Island shore then approached Kaizumi Beach. Despite going against the current (it was flooding all afternoon and evening) they continued west..
Time went by. No calls and the sea was pretty exercised so viewing on the remote cameras was not ideal. We went about our regular monitoring, scans & chores.
Grant arrived today with his lovely dog Sola to help Mark with the roofing of the lower part of the guest house. Justus continued to work on part of the deck. Jérémie deployed a hydrophone at Local Centre. Everyone, everywhere seemed busy working up an appetite for Callum’s next delicious meal. Hervé Glotin returned to deploy his localising hydrophone array. He and Jérémie worked on refurbishing the array, getting it ready to be placed back in the water in a few days. There have been some already interesting data results from past deployments.
Part of the morning was spent taking the fire pump out and doing a fire drill. Not a bad idea because there was much which needed attention to make the system work which we managed in the end to do. Now we just have to repeat the exercise to finesse our procedures!
By 7:54pm the A42s along with A94 (later confirmed by Jared Towers) were passing Jim and Mary Borrowman’s place in Telegraph Cove. Jim remarked on the accompanying dolphins keeping pace with the orcas. The orcas were a bit spread out but continuing west. By the time Jared got out from Alert Bay they had ducked into the calmer waters of Beaver Cove. The current was to change around 9:25pm and we waited to see what they did next.
The humpbacks seemed to be enjoying the blustery weather. Several were in the Pass today. The day before, Freckles and her new baby slowly moved back and forth for quite a while. This was our first sighting of the pair. Freckles seemed very attentive to her baby barely surfacing, taking long dives and not moving too fast or far. They returned the following day.
We have an added appreciation of these humpbacks after a visit from the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS). Jackie Hildering gave a presentation explaining how the OrcaLab data is aiding humpback research in the local area. This helped the new volunteers understand more about their collective efforts to follow, identify, document and report sightings. Jackie explained the history of the occurrence of humpbacks in this area and how they have rebounded after the cessation of whaling in 1967. She gave detailed information on feeding and other behaviours. She explained the dangers from ship strikes and how to best report infractions of the whale watching regulations. It was a wonderful meeting. Thank you Jackie, Caitlin and Nicole.
The discussion about ship strikes could not have been more timely. Jordan, who recently returned to Orcalab, watched as the Alaskan ferry, the Kennicott, barrelled down on the humpback Stitch, who made a startled dive as the ship passes.
Later on, at 9:30pm Nicolette reported that a mother and baby were bubble net feeding near Double Bay. We wonder if it was Freckles and her baby.
Meanwhile the humpback Merge came close to Lab while Inukshuk gambled further out.
While this was happening Shari sighted a small group of Bigg’s orcas travelling north through Blackney Pass far side. They were too far away for any positive identifications that were further hindered by the fading evening light.
All this time the A42s had come out of Beaver Cove and were slowly going past Alert Bay by 9:48pm. They were still only part way past Alert Bay by 11pm.
