Just before 1am, there was echolocation and N3 calls in Blackfish Sound, accompanied by a few Pacific White-sided dolphins vocalizations. At 2:36am, it became clear that these were the A62s as their distinctive vocals got clearer and more diverse, even though still quite distant, on the Flower Island hydrophone. They were soon louder on our Parson Island hydrophone at 2:48am, suggesting that the whales were travelling south in Blackney Pass! This would be the first time they had taken this route in a long time as they have been choosing to take Weynton Passage ever since they came back to the area on October 9th! Their calls sounded excited, even through the loud boat noise. They eventually paused for 5 minutes as the boat passed and were then vocal further east in Johnstone Strait, getting closer to the Kaizumi hydrophone located on Vancouver Island. Their calls were then mixed with humpback vocalizations and resonated throughout our hydrophone range in the Strait. It sounded like they were quite spread out and remained more or less vocal until 7:57am.
Around midday, Jared reported the A62s resting westbound at Blinkhorn. Half an hour later, we heard them very briefly as they moved back within range of our hydrophone network. But it wasn’t until 2:52pm that we pressed record again when they vocalized more clearly in the Strait when now travelling eastbound.
Meanwhile, a lot of humpbacks in Blackney Pass were keeping Claire busy on this beautiful sunny day! There was a lot of feeding going on in Parson Bay by familiar individuals such as Ripple, Ridge and Quartz. We also observed a few more, listed at the top of this summary!
By 4:34pm, Claire spotted blows approaching Kaizumi from the Cracroft Point remote camera. The A62s got louder and louder on the Kaizumi Beach hydrophone and people tuned in from afar to listen to their lovely clear calls. The familiar sound of ‘chuffs’ swept in at 5:18pm! At least three orcas rubbed, undisturbed, for 11 minutes. After the rub, they continued west towards Kaikash and were vocal in this area for the next 2 hours, hopefully getting their bellies full while the snowy mountains turned pink as the sun set. At 7:29pm, a humpback “warmed up” in the Strait but did not follow through into song. The A62s continued to call sporadically in the Strait until 8:53pm.
