For the past week, the A62s have been spending a lot of time foraging either in Blackfish Sound or Johnstone Strait. On October 15th, they chose to be in Blackfish Sound where we heard them from 9:16am until just before 7pm.
During the afternoon, Jérémie reinstalled the Sea Lion Rock camera using a custom made structure mounted on a tree with the help of Jianna and Nora. Soon after, back at the Lab, we were able to watch Blackfish Sound again using this remote camera and Jianna spotted whales coming towards Blackney Pass! We thought the A62s were finally coming!
At 5:42pm, two orcas were seen on the far side including one male, two other orcas were traveling close to Burnt Point. They were not the A62s! They were Bigg’s orcas, identified later as T023D and T023D5 by Finwave. Their progress was very slow as they continued south while fighting the strong, opposing ebb currents. Those on the far side vanished while two other small fins joined the pair closest to us. As the light faded, these four orcas were headed for Johnstone Strait by 6:55pm. The calls of the A62s then also faded in Blackfish Sound. Just past midnight, we heard Bigg’s calls in Johnstone Strait and wondered if they were the T023s we saw in Blackney Pass earlier.
While reviewing the early morning recording of October 16, Nora was surprised to hear the characteristic sounds of a rub at 1:47am! Dolphin chatter preceded the amazing orca calls and for once no boat noise disturbed the moment. After this 18 minute rub at Kaizumi the A62s moved west along the Vancouver Island side toward the area opposite the entrance of Blackney Pass as evidenced by the faint calls on the Parson Island hydrophone at 2:28am. Their calls were sporadic and distant for the rest of the night in Johnstone Strait until 8:52am. At 9:12am, Jared, from his house in Alert Bay, reported seeing three orcas headed North toward Weynton Passage. Sure enough at 10:24am, the A62s were back in Blackfish Sound. Initially, they sounded closer to the Flower Island hydrophone but then became more distant and sporadic until their calls ceased altogether by 6:25pm.
A few minutes after this a humpback whale began to vocalise in Blackfish Sound. He was joined by another singer after 10pm and then another one at the southern entrance of Blackney Pass. Their incredible sounds continued throughout the night until just before sunrise.
Following the trend of the past few days, the A62s were back in range of the Blackfish Sound hydrophone at 8:15am on October 17. It was lovely to wake up with Residents calls and see the fresh snow on the Vancouver Island mountains. Five hours later, their distant calls stopped once again in Blackfish Sound as they travelled south through Weynton Passage. By 1:42pm they were in Johnstone Strait where they traveled eastward favoring the Vancouver Island side. Tjasa spotted them near Kaizumi on the Cracroft Point remote camera. They soon turned back to the west towards Kaikash and were vocal on the Parson Island hydrophone system from 4:27pm until 6:27pm.
An hour later, we heard faint N3 calls on the Strider Rubbing Beach and Main Rubbing Beach hydrophones up until 8:30pm, which suggested that the whales had turned east again towards the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. At 10:11pm, the A62s had made their way west once more and were vocal on the Parson Island hydrophone. At 2am, we heard a rhythmic sound of crashing waves on pebbles, but there were two distinct rub-like ‘chuff’ sounds and we suspect that one whale rubbed briefly at Kaizumi, without emitting any calls. From 3:12am until 3:27am, the A62s were faintly vocal in the Strait. After that, the songs of humpbacks kept going until the early hours of October 18.
