The sights and sounds of the A54s and the A23s defined the 30th of July. The morning began at 1:20 AM with very distant A30 calls in Blackfish Sound. Beginning around 1:30 AM, the calls of the orcas were joined by the sounds of a humpback bubble net feeding in Blackfish Sound about every 10 minutes. The A30 calls continued to get louder and clearer as they approached Blackney Passage. By about 3:00 AM, the A30 group, later identified as the A54s, had made their way into Blackney Pass, where their blows could be heard from the Lab deck. Around 3:30 AM, calls from the A23s were heard mixed with those of the A54s. By 3:55 AM, the A54s and A23s had made their way into Johnstone Strait, where they continued calling as they made their way east towards the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve. Around 4:50 AM, they had entered the Ecological Reserve and were foraging near the mouth of the Tsitika River as they slowly moved towards Strider Rubbing Beach. Around 5:40 AM, in the beautiful early morning light, the A54 and A23s began rubbing at Strider Rubbing Beach. We were shocked to see a small boat transit through the Reserve, stopping to watch the whales, not sensitive enough to understand the special and vulnerable event going on. The boat carried on to the east. By around 6:41 AM, the group, including the A54s and A23s, had left Strider Rubbing Beach and moved west along the Vancouver Island shore.
At 7:51 AM, a group of likely A54s began rubbing at Kaizumi Rubbing Beach, as A1 calls were mixed in with the ‘chuffs’ (the sound of the pebbles as orca rub their bodies on the smooth beach stones). By 7:58 AM, a tight group, the A23s, were offshore of Kaizumi Rubbing Beach, distinguished by the tall male dorsal fins of A60 and A95. By 8:00 AM, the group who had been rubbing at Kaizumi moved on, and all the A54s and A23s continued west, eventually turning sharply to cross Johnstone Strait. Around 8:30 AM, they reached the entrance to Blackney Passage. At the time they crossed the Strait and made their way past Cracroft Point, we were lucky that the fog had rolled back enough to count the number of whales, and confirm that both groups, the A23s and A54s, had made the crossing. Shortly after they left the Cracroft Point camera’s view, the fog rolled back in, and we could only catch a brief glimpse of them as they passed the Lab heading north. Paul taking Anna and Jamie to Telegraph Cove got caught in the dense fog but eventually made it safely. Later, when the fog cleared again, it was now time to take Tim’s family to Telegraph Cove. Olivia then went on to Alert Bay to pick up Tomoko and Marie. By 9:30 AM, the A54s and A23s had cleared Blackney Passage and entered Blackfish Sound. They continued north and then west into Queen Charlotte Strait, out of our range for a few hours.
Around 3:20 PM, bubble net feeding vocals from a humpback whale were heard near Strider Rubbing Beach. The unidentified humpback fed four times in that area as it moved east toward Main Rubbing Beach. Four more bubble net feeding events were heard before the humpback moved out of range to the east.
Around 3:45 PM, Alex informed us that 6-7 Northern Residents were rounding Bold Head on Swanson Island, coming back from Queen Charlotte Strait. She also mentioned that another group was foraging in Blackfish Sound. By 4:08 PM, we started hearing Northern Resident calls on our Flower Island hydrophone in Blackfish Sound. Then at 5:02 PM, Alex reported seeing a group with two males, likely the A23s, entering Blackfish Sound from Stubbs Island at the top of Weynton Passage. Calls continued as the A54s and A23s came together and made their way into Blackney Passage around 5:40 PM. By 6:05 PM, they had all moved out of our view and into Johnstone Strait. They spent about an hour foraging off Cracroft Point before heading east toward the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve. We continued to hear calls as they traveled, and around 8:00 PM, they were spotted on the Robson Bight camera on the west side of the Reserve, heading toward Strider Rubbing Beach. At 8:42 PM, the A54s and A23s briefly rubbed at Strider Rubbing Beach before spreading out offshore. Around 10:00 PM, some of the whales had made their way back to the Vancouver Island shoreline and were foraging along the shore and at the mouth of the Tsitika River. Calls from the A54s and A23s continued in the Strait, slowly moving west through the remainder of the evening and into the early morning hours of the 31st.
Words by Katelyn
