Well, the A34s did come together and together they travelled back into Johnstone Strait via Weynton Pass. Their distant calls were first heard after midnight around 1:40am. For the next three hours, as humpbacks made their presence known in Blackfish Sound, the A34s made their way east toward the Ecological Reserve. They became excited at 3:36am just before they made a short two minute rub at 3:46am. They quickly moved on further east for a short while before turning back west. During the next several hours they kept that purpose while the humpback in Blackfish continued his sounds.
The dawn brought a pretty sunrise to the remote cameras in Blackney Pass and Johnstone Strait where the A34s continued their move westward. There were close calls and echo location probably close to Robson Bight at 5:48pm. Unfortunately, a long line of fog against the shoreline of Vancouver Island prevented any sightings despite the increasing light.
The remote surface camera at Strider Beach, where there was no obscuring fog, revealed there was no one trailing behind just the Western Brave making test sets early in the morning.
By 7:11am, more echo location and tonal whistles were heard further west of the Bight. The A34s were making some progress albeit rather slowly. Their calls continued right up to and beyond the report from Nicolette of a group of at least nine off the entrance to Weynton Pass and another group of four by Telegraph Cove by 10:10am. There, at the western end of Johnstone Strait there was no urgency on the whales’ part to head into Weynton. The current was still against them. So they stayed in this vicinity a while longer. At 1:42pm there was a change as calls became clearer. The A34s had turned east. Sure enough they were soon heard on the Cracroft Point hydrophone and they were excited to be in the rip off the entrance to Blackney Pass. The slack to ebb was still a full hour away so they bided their time foraging.
Meanwhile, Bigg’s orcas turned up suddenly in Blackney Pass, basically opposite the Lab on the far side. They must have been aware of the very vocal Northern Residents in the Strait as there is a direct line acoustically through the entrance to Blackney Pass from where they were. They too bided their time by taking very long dives, resting on the surface, going back and forth basically in the same place. This was the same group who just a scant two weeks ago were successfully hunting a sea lion fairly close to the Lab.
By 2:30pm, the A34s were well into the entrance of Blackney Pass. and by 2:44pm they began their journey north in ernest. The A62s took up the rear and when they reached the north edge of Parson Island at 3:09pm the Bigg’s orcas were there too. There was no obvious interaction. The A62s continued north, the Bigg’s didn’t budge. By now the other A34s were almost through the Pass. A crowd of very excited Pacific White-sided dolphins had come in from the north and quickly found the Resident orcas. The ebb took the A34s closer to Blackfish Sound but not before a very active humpback and leaping dolphins interacted with some of them.
At 3:33pm, the A34s disappeared into Blackfish. The T055s moved away from the far shores slightly, turned and followed the A34s into Blackfish Sound at 3:45pm without any calls. In contrast the A34s continued to call continuously until 6:34pm. The very last faint calls occurred at 7:50pm,
With the encroaching dark a humpback in Blackfish began to warm up for the long night ahead.
