We pick up where we left off with the A50s and R18s having just reached Johnstone Strait around midnight. While some calls were still on the Parson Island system they were also on the Kaizumi system. The whales were moving out from the entrance of Blackney Pass and drawing toward the Vancouver Island side. By 12:20am both echo location and calls became louder on the Kaizumi Vancouver Island system. Twenty-four minutes later the calls on the Robson Bight Critical Point and Strider Beach systems indicated movement to the east, confirmed when the calls were solely on the Strider Beach system east of Robson Bight. Boat noise masked any subsequent calls until heard once again on the Kaizumi hydrophone at 3:10am. They had turned! By 3:40am, they were once again at the entrance to Blackney Pass making ready to re-enter the Pass. Their calls were lovely, a mix of two clans from the same community. Within five minutes they were far enough in for calls to register on the Flower Island hydrophone situated in Blackfish Sound with an ear to Blackney Pass. Lots of echo location mixed in with the calls told us of their progress into Blackfish Sound proper. Seems as if the A50s stretched away from the Rs at this point as their calls became distant but the Rs remained loud and clear on Flower a while longer. By 4:36am it was all over. They had gone out of range to the west.
A while later, at 5:32am, the early morning brought the sounds of a Humpback, mostly likely Inukshuk, who had been breaching, pec slapping and even resting at the surface.
It continued to be an active day for Humpbacks and for the Lab. At 1:45pm, the Humpback Ripple breached in Blackney Pass for two hours!
Maintenance efforts continued during the day with work being done on the hydrophone systems.
As evening approached Troy Bright reported observing the A50s at Bere Point. They went in for a rub and left the beach at 6:26pm. Troy could not confirm but suspected the R18s were behind and spread out. They did not rub. From the beach they all headed east through Queen Charlotte Strait.
Things, at our end, began to develop further at 9:22pm when Olivia reported hearing “A” calls on the Double Bay hydrophone. The range of this hydrophone has yet to be determined but given its location and prospect acoustically it is fair to surmise that it is listening well into Queen Charlotte Strait. At 9:50pm, Olivia saw fins a little over a third out from Malcolm Island and not yet at Donegal Head.
The Lab would not hear their approach to Blackfish until after midnight.
During the day, there was a disturbing incident involving a kayaker who decided unwisely to get too close to a humpback in the middle of Blackney. The Lab filmed the incident on the remote camera. There wasn’t an accident but the persistence of the kayaker to ignore all the rules of behaviour around cetaceans was obvious. The regulations are there for a purpose and recognise that every marine mammal has a need to live unimpeded lives.
