The early morning of the 16th was relatively quiet, but by 10:40 AM, there were at least 4 individual Humpback whales in Blackney Passage. At 10:45 AM, one of these individuals, whom we believe to be Corporal, was seen lunge feeding near the Parson Island Lighthouse. Through the latter part of the morning, the humpbacks kept us busy with photo identification and monitoring their movements. At 1:13 PM, four orcas were seen in Blackney Passage traveling fast to the north. Our assistants quickly identified them as Bigg’s, and they were further identified via Finwave as the T077s without T077B.
There was a report of Northern Residents northbound in Seymour Narrows, just north of Campbell River, which made us wonder if the A42s might be making their way back north. This report was later corrected and the ecotype was updated to Bigg’s orca.
Around 2:20 PM, continuous Humpback vocalizations were heard in Blackfish Sound; they continued for about five minutes before being drowned out by boat noise. Just before 5:40 PM, the Humpback Insomnia entered Blackney Passage from the south, traveling close to shore, bubble-net feeding and fluking before rounding Burnt Point and moving north out of our view. At 8:20 PM, Insomnia again entered Blackney Passage, this time from the north, and bubble-net feeding was observed twice more in front of the Lab. At 9:30 PM, Insomnia was again spotted traveling close to shore, going north and again bubble-net feeding was observed once more before they cleared from our view for the night.
The 17th was relatively quiet at the lab. The morning began with bubble-net feeding calls in Blackfish Sound at 9:40 AM. Humpback vocalizations were again heard in Blackfish Sound at 12:38 PM.
At 6:57 PM, orcas were spotted at the southern end of Blackney Passage. For about 10 minutes, they were very active on the surface, just barely in the southern range of our view, breaching, spyhopping, and tail slapping. Beginning at 7:08 PM, there were some faint and infrequent orca vocalizations on the Parson Island hydrophone that continued until around 7:20 PM. While this group did not travel through Blackney Pass, likely due to the strong opposing current, we received a report from Scotty shortly after they cleared from our view who identified the orcas as Bigg’s and mentioned that they had likely had a meal in the southern entrance of Blackney Pass, as there were lots of birds picking up scraps nearby. We later received a report from Jared Towers that the Bigg’s were identified as the T035As and the T038As.
Humpback bubble-net feeding vocalizations were again heard in Blackfish Sound around 9:15 PM, and they continued infrequently until 9:45 PM. This was followed at 9:50 PM by bubble-net feeding vocalizations off Cracroft Point.
