Below the surface, the acoustic world was once again vibrating with humpback songs for most of the night. Multiple individuals sang in all locations surrounding Hanson Island until the first light of day. Just as Claire was listening to these songs while finishing to review the night recordings, she heard ‘chuffs’ on the lab speakers! A surprise rub! It started at 9:57am at Kaizumi and lasted for 22 minutes. The whales only emitted N3 calls, used by all A Clan orcas, but we needed to hear more to know who they were! An hour after the first ‘chuff’, part of the mystery was uncovered as the whales started to vocalize more! We immediately identified their distinct A5 calls! They slowly continued east towards the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, while echolocating sporadically along the way.
Meanwhile, at 12:02pm, Jeremie spotted 4 orcas in Blackney Pass in front of the sea lion rocks just south of the lab. They looked like Bigg’s and seemed to be foraging in a bait ball with at least 3 humpbacks. Were they “pretending” to be Resident orca-like so that the 75 sea lions hauled out on the rocks wouldn’t be suspicious? Were they using the humpbacks as cover? This went on for about 30 minutes until the sea lions realized that there was a trick, they suddenly panicked and most of them jumped into the water! On multiple occasions, the Bigg’s separated in 2 groups, 2 were near the sea lion rocks and 2 others were a bit further away. Was this another hunting technique?
This was the moment the A5 pod orcas decided to start rubbing at Strider Rubbing Beach! With one hand writing notes and the other hand controlling both Sea Lion Rock camera and Strider Rubbing Beach camera, Claire was covering all fronts in the Lab while Jeremie was on deck taking pictures of the Bigg’s orcas in Blackney Pass. Their dorsal fins all had nicks and he soon identified them as the T137s. In the meantime, the rubbing whales spent some quality time at Strider Rubbing Beach from 12:33pm until 12:51pm, then on to the Main Rubbing Beach from 12:55pm antill 13:04pm. One male had a tall wobbly fin that looked like A95 and the others looked like members of the A23s. There was no sign of A60 but he usually does his own thing and is not often seen rubbing. As the Resident whales ended their rub, the T137s were passing close to the Lab and headed north into Blackfish Sound. After all these events, the following silence on the hydrophones was a bit unsettling for Claire and Jeremie manning the lab!
Just before 3pm, the A23s were vocal again in Johnstone Strait, east of the Reserve. They remained distant for most of the afternoon and ignored the rubbing beaches as the tide was pretty low. At 7:04pm, they were making their way back west close to Vancouver Island and we heard their clear and beautiful calls on the Kaizumi Rubbing Beach, identified as the A23s by Tomoko and Dylan listening from afar. Their calls faded after 7:43pm.
A humpback took over very close to the Parson Island hydrophone at 7:57pm, and then another one on the Flower Island hydrophone at 9:19pm, almost with no boat noise covering their melodies. A lovely way to end the day!
