This day starts at 12:34am when a humpback in Blackney Pass found his voice for six minutes.
The western movement of the Resident groups who had gone east the previous evening was equally, though different, quite dramatic with someone of the I15s very loud and very close to Strider beach. We continued to hear I15 type calls on Strider through 12:55am. By 1:04am there were no further calls, only echolocation. After a gap of twenty or so minutes (the approximate amount of time for orcas to travel between Strider and Robson Bight) calls were heard on the Critical Point system at 1:32am. Without any real rehearsal, the A5s and A54s clearly became more vocal off Critical Point at 3:28am. From there, and for more than an hour, we listened to the mix of calls from the A54s, A5s and I15s in the Strait. The whales seemed to be spread out over a wide area from west of the western boundary back toward the eastern boundary.
A three minute rub began at Strider at 5:21am. This was followed by close A5 and I15 calls.
From 5:30 to 9am the orcas were constantly calling but distant. This vague waning movement made it difficult to detail how the groups were distributed and what they were doing.
A report at 9:15am helped to clarify the situation. They had not advanced particularly far “up” the Strait. A group of five orcas were seen mid strait between the Reserve on the Vancouver Island side and Cracroft Island. Then at 9:32am echolocation was heard at Strider. Echolocation and A54 and I15 calls were noted at 9:50am. This was followed by their rub that started at 10:04am. It lasted for twenty-two minutes. There was good underwater footage captured during the rub and very clear acoustics. A61 and I76 were seen by the remote surface camera going west.
Other members of the I15s were already off Critical Point by the time the Strider rub was concluding. A54s, by 10:45am, were there too. The orcas now seemed to be taking a more definite direction to the west. Sure enough the Cracroft Point camera found them doing just that at 11:21am and by 11:35am the lead whales were positioned off the entrance to Blackney Pass.
Not everyone was there just yet. An I15 group and some of the A54s were still east of Cracroft Point. At precisely 12pm orcas had a short rub at Kaizumi.
At 1:20pm Alex reported a group of 5 inbound in Blackfish Sound. This would turn out to be the A62s who entered the Strait via Weynton Pass according to Scotty at 2:16pm.
Meanwhile, A5 calls became very close on the Parson Island system at 1:35pm. After five minutes the Residents began to file into Blackney Pass in four separate groups. When the first group cleared by 1:57pm the fourth group had yet to appear. They did so at 2:03pm.
Calls, as the first orcas to enter Blackfish, were heard at 2:16pm. This was the A54s. Perhaps stimulated by this, the humpback Inukshuk became vocal too. Was Inukshuk our midnight serenader? Finally at 2:21pm, all the groups, including the fourth, had cleared our view into Blackfish.
From 2:21 to 5:27pm calls were heard in Blackfish, close at times but then faint as the orcas got further away.
For a short while there were no calls. Then, at 5:52pm distant A5 calls were heard in Johnstone Strait. Distant I15s were also there just before 6pm. The calls lasted until 7:14pm ending with A5 calls.
At 7:35pm there were mid range A54 calls on the Flower Island station in Blackfish Sound for about ten minutes. Between 7:46 and 7:54pm there were only faint calls until 8:54pm when louder generic N3s happened. This was followed by clear A54 calls on Parson Island at 9:21pm until 9:26pm. Had the A54s backtracked to Johnstone Strait to where the A62s, A5s (?A25s) and I15s were already?
There was dolphin chatter in Blackfish at 9:36pm and calls in the Strait to 10:29pm.
