On November 13th, our day started with very clear and beautiful humpback calls, located in the southern part of Blackney Pass. Although their numbers have significantly reduced since the beginning of the week, a few humpbacks still regularly visit the Pass, such as Moonstar, Freckles, Argonaut and Cygnus as well as Ace who was spotted close to a group of unidentified Bigg’s orcas at 3:26pm.
The next morning around 8:30am, the A23s were heard in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. The remote Critical Point camera offers an amazing view point of the western part of the Reserve where we spotted A95 and A60 traveling east. They quickly turned back west and we heard them echolocating 2 hours later on the Kaizumi hydrophone. While some of the A23s were close to the Vancouver Island shore with Pacific White-Sided Dolphins, A60 was on his own off Cracroft Point. They were last seen around 1pm headed west in Johnstone Strait.
The rest of that afternoon was busy with preparing for winter and welcoming back Cam and Mat who will look after the lab for the next few months. Their arrival coincided with Paul and Helena’s departure the next day. As their silhouettes on board our boat Sonic disappeared behind Burnt Point, Cam and Claire heard A1 calls on the live stream! Cam ran to the lab as Claire finished securing a good log that Paul spotted just before leaving! Hilarious situation!
The A34 calls were soon identified by those listening from the lab and from afar. Their last visit in the area (minus the A62s) was on August 24th. Alex spotted them in Blackfish Sound foraging and milling along the Swanson Island shore. She brought up potentially successful hunting, as there are quite a few winter chinook in the area. At 12:17pm, their calls sounded excited and closer to the Flower Island hydrophone. We spotted a first group at 12:36pm, on the far side of Blackney Pass, composed of A34, A96 and her baby. A80 suddenly appeared close to the lab, travelling at full speed to the south. A few minutes later, the A67s were following his tracks and were porpoising in the same direction. It all happened very quickly and they cleared our view shortly, soon to appear on the Cracroft Point camera headed east favouring the Cracroft Island shore. It was a beautiful sight with the low sunlight backlighting their blows, as they crossed the path of 2 humpbacks trap feeding surrounded by a flock of birds! We could not account for A55 in Blackney Pass but one large male was seen from the Cracroft Point camera, also headed east. Finally, they slowed down the pace and started to spread out and forage off the entrance of Blackney Pass for a bit. At least 3 of them crossed to the Vancouver Island shore and slightly rubbed the pebbles at Kaizumi at 3:15pm. Their calls continued towards the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve and faded after 5:29pm.
Just before dark, our attention at the Lab was drawn to the humpbacks Moonstar and Vulture travelling very close to the shore with sea lions! The clouds shifted just in time for us to watch the beautiful full moon rising above Harbledown Island. Moments later, one male orca was seen travelling north just in front of the lab! The light was getting so dark but 2 other Bigg’s looking orcas were seen at Burnt Point. What a day!
