In the morning of October 22, there was echolocation in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. The A62s were foraging next to Critical Point, the eastern headland of Robson Bight. It was lovely to get a glimpse of their silhouettes as they slowly travelled west close to the Vancouver Island shoreline. Following the trend of the past few weeks, they later spent time in the rip off Cracroft Point. After 12:29pm, keeping to the Strait, they journeyed west. At 5pm, Scotty reported them easting off Telegraph Cove. We faintly heard them a short while later but it wasn’t until the next morning at 9:11am that they were heard again, this time in Blackfish Sound. To get there, at some point during the interval, they had likely travelled out of Johnstone Strait via Weynton Passage.
They were vocal for about 2 hours in Blackfish Sound before choosing to move into Weynton Passage again. They reached the Strait by 12:34pm and we spotted them near Kaikash on our Cracroft Point remote camera as they turned back west again! They remained in the Strait until just after 8pm.
The next day on October 24, they were still in Johnstone Strait. By 6:29am they were off the southern entrance to Blackney Pass. We were left wondering what they had been up to during the night as they surely didn’t travel very far away! They moved closer to the Vancouver Island side around 7:41am and traveled east for a while towards the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve before turning back to the west again, ignoring the rubbing beaches. They were off the entrance to Blackney Pass at 11:28am westing mid Strait.Their calls faded after 1:35pm. With their calls echoing to the Main Rubbing Beach system between 3:30pm and 4:11pm they may have been moving east once more.
As much as we’d love to see them in Blackney Pass, they seem to enjoy the Strait, Weynton Passage and Blackfish Sound a lot. It has been speculated that a specific distribution of their favoured types of salmon has played into their choices of travel and focus.
All the while, there has been constant humpback feeding activity in Blackney Pass along with incredible songs each night. The evening of October 24 was particularly spectacular with a very close song on the Parson Island hydrophone which mesmerized Claire and Jérémie at the Lab and all those who were listening remotely. The songs of these giants are truly something special.
