Listening to the night’s recordings, we realized how spectacular nights continued to be. Around 1am there were faint Bigg’s calls in Blackfish Sound who called for about 20 minutes before fading out. Additionally, several humpbacks shared their social calls and song practices with us. How wonderful to review these recordings in the morning!
Around 8:30am, the Northern Residents chimed in for a few minutes with faint calls on the Strider Rubbing Beach hydrophone. This hydrophone has an incredibly long range reaching from the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve all the way to the entrance of Weynton Passage. The calls were faint and it was difficult to tell exactly where the whales might be in Johnstone Strait. Julia identified the calls as A1 calls and we could hear some of the A62s’ distinctive calls. After a long pause, they were vocal again at 11:30am in Johnstone Strait and while emitting both echolocation and some excited calls getting closer to the Vancouver Island shore near Kaizumi Rubbing Beach hydrophone by 12:38pm. They did not come for a rub this time and after 1:35pm their calls faded while boat noise intensified.
About an hour later, two groups of Bigg’s orcas entered Blackney Pass from Blackfish Sound. The first group included about 7 individuals and were spotted in Parson Bay. There were three big males in this group and we thought they could be the T101s (reported by the Maple Leaf on October 9th in Johnstone Strait). They traveled very close to the sea lion haulout at Parson Island Light before going on a dive after which we lost track of them.
The second group composed of three orcas who cruised slowly much closer to the lab. Their dorsal fins were familiar, we had seen them earlier this summer! We identified them as the T019s. This time, T018 wasn’t traveling with them and we wondered if she was on the far side with the other group. It was quite special to see them spending a lot of time at the surface, in no rush whatsoever, allowing us to take perfect ID shots! They cleared our view to the south at 3:36pm. They never made a single call.
Six minutes later, another group of Bigg’s arrived from Blackfish Sound. There were 5 whales including a baby and a male. They were on an angle when we photographed them and we could not easily identify them but thanks to the identification platform Finwave, we were later informed that they were the T069As! To our surprise, they were followed by another group! This last group was comprised of eight orcas, who surfaced in perfect synchronicity. We identified them as the T100s and T037As (also reported by the Maple Leaf on October 9th in Johnstone Strait). They continued south out of sight at 4:05pm.
What an incredible day! At least 23 Bigg’s orcas had passed the lab! But the day wasn’t over yet! At 6:07pm, we spotted another group of Bigg’s in Blackney Pass! One male and four smaller whales. This time, they were traveling North. They were mid channel to the farside and one member looked like T099B, later confirmed by Finwave! New total count: 28 whales! It was a lovely sunset moment watching the whales from the deck with others from Double Bay. Once the orcas were in Blackfish Sound, half an hour after clearing our view, they called briefly.
A humpback started to warm up around 8pm in Blackney Pass and sang for a little while. Humpbacks vocals would continue throughout the night throughout our acoustic range!
These past few days have really been filled with wonderful moments and appreciation for Mother Nature. We are also very grateful for our assistants and the positive energy gravitating around the lab. We had to say goodbye to Georgia and Julia, and wish them all the best for their future projects, hoping that they will come again next year!
