July 4th was fairly quiet but July 5th had a few notable events worth reporting.
This was to be Jérémie’s last day at the Lab and true to form he was super busy all day finishing up the long to do list. Jérémie is one of those special people who see what’s needed to be done and does not hesitate, everything from orchestrating the fire drill, deploying the “Stethorca” hydrophones (Prof Hervé Glotin’s special localising hydrophone project), likewise deploying the Local Centre hydrophone off the Lab, performing and training others CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) casts on specific hydrophone sites, testing out other new hydrophones with Quin, ensuring the Lab equipment is running properly, installing a new NAS drive for data back-up, problem solving plumping issues in the bath-house and along the waterline and even making bread! The list goes on and on. Thank you! Jérémie, we are forever grateful and wish you a safe journey back to France. It has been a wonderful visit!
With it still being light out in the early morning, despite the now shortening days, at 4:45pm, two humpbacks were right off the Lab. Too dark for still ID photos but the live stream captured as one continuously tail slapped.
Three hours later (7:42am) a group of dolphins approached the Lab significantly from the south. It would turn out that a group of Bigg’s orcas (possibly the T69s) were later seen going west past Telegraph Cove at 10:05am. Smart of the dolphins to get out of the way! They came close to Hanson Island and even the bay to the right of the Lab.
With the dolphins having long departed, the Lab readied to deploy the aforementioned “Stethorca” and Local Centre hydrophones around 10am. The first test for the Stethorca array came at 4:45pm when Quartz and Dall’s Porpoise stayed close together mid channel for about 10 minutes. A nice inter-species moment.
Not to be outdone for attention, two sea lions, at around 5:05pm, became very exercised, leaping in front of the Lab while going back and forth at high speed.
At 5:57pm, Megan, who is working in the Salish Sea these days, relayed that (7) Northern Residents were observed between Courtenay and Savary Island. We took this to be the A42s plus A94 although there was no identification given at the time.
As a postscript to the day, at 10:39pm, a lone humpback surfaced right below the Lab three times, lunged, then disappeared around Burnt Point as Katelyn was about to prepare the notes and pictures for this summary – thank you Katelyn!
