The sound of dolphins chatter and distant humpback songs lulled our dreams during the early hours. Suddenly, clear A1 calls took Claire out of her reverie at 4:29am. Northern Residents were back! Five minutes later, Claire was in the Lab locating the calls in Blackfish Sound. Tomoko, listening from Japan, identified the calls as the A34s.
We weren’t immediately sure if these were all the A34s or part of them. The A62s were last heard from on September 30th, the rest of the A34s on August 26th.
At 6am, the whales after taking Weynton Pass were vocal in Johnstone Strait. While they remained distant, a humpback started a lovely song in Blackfish Sound up until loud boat noise covered his melody.
Around 7am, echolocation from the A34s on the Kaizumi hydrophone suggested they were travelling east close to the Vancouver Island side of the Strait.
Meanwhile, we received a report from AJ about orcas passing Double Bay headed our way. At 9:22am, we spotted them in Blackney Pass. We soon identified the distinctive dorsal fin of T060C, who was traveling with his family (minus T060D and T060E who are known to travel separately). They foraged for a while in Blackney Pass and turned back north at 10:32am.
They did not come close to the sea lion haul out on Hanson Island just south of the Lab. As many of you know, there is a remote camera at this location and today we noticed that the log supporting the camera for five years had unfortunately cracked sending the camera tumbling! Had the weight of a huge male sea lion proved too much? Jeremie, Julia and Claire made the trip to the rock to safely retrieve the camera. Fortunately, it didn’t suffer too much damage when it fell down and Jeremie will create a temporary new structure to reinstall the camera back as soon as possible!
Observing with the Cracroft Point remote camera, the Resident whales were slowly traveling east in the Strait pointed towards the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve by 11:53am.
An hour later, Jackie informed us of orcas “barrelling” down Blackfish Sound. Just before 2pm, these Bigg’s orcas were in Blackney Pass. At about the same time, the Resident whales were approaching Strider Rubbing Beach and started to rub at 2:09pm! With whales in Blackney Pass and other whales rubbing in the Ecological Reserve the Lab was very busy! This was quite the welcome for returning volunteer Tjasa who first came to the lab 5 years ago!
The remote cameras, both underwater and surface, at Strider Rubbing Beach were helpful identifying the five rubbing whales as the A62s. All were involved in the rub and it was magical to see them on our underwater camera once again. They rubbed for nine minutes before heading east. At 2:25pm, a large group of Pacific White-sided dolphins travelled from the east. They were close enough to be seen on the underwater camera! A few minutes later, A91 came back for a rub, accompanied by A62. They slowly made their way back to the west after floating offshore. As the family passed Robson Bight mid strait the dolphins swirled separately around Critical Point.
Meanwhile, the Bigg’s orcas, now identified as T065A, T065A2, T065A4 and T065A6, stayed in Blackney for about an hour and a half during which they made a kill around 2:40pm. The Parson Island hydrophone registered the accompanying loud bangs and slapping sounds while a nearby humpback became vocal too. Five minutes later, the T065As started calling, announcing their successful hunt. A breach and tail slaps followed. The A62s had been simultaneously vocal in the Strait this whole time. At 3:56pm, the T065As cleared our view to the south.
Scotty and Jared informed us that T065A3, who was not with the rest of the family in Blackney, had been seen in Ketchikan, some 900km away, on October 7th.
Meanwhile, the Maple Leaf reported to Scotty that the T100s, T101s and T037As were westing in Johnstone Strait west of Seymour. What a day!
The A62s, still observed on the remote cameras while near the Reserve at 5:19pm, were vocal for the rest of the evening as they slowly moved west. They were closer to the entrance of Blackney Pass by 10:43pm but chose to stay in Johnstone Strait and continued calling throughout the night.
