A new month, familiar whales, similar patterns. After midnight, the A54s, A23s, A25s and the I15s were making their way east through Johnstone Strait. The enthusiastic I15s (which of the three groups was uncertain) had already drawn closer to Strider before midnight. They remained close to that area from then on until just before 1am. The A54s and the two A5 matrilines, the A23s and A25s, had already faded to the east around 12:39am. A final burst of strong echolocation at Strider at 12:55am finalized the recording.
More than two hours passed before the I15s came back into range. Over the next hour all calls were distant and no one seemed at first to be near the Vancouver Island shoreline. Calls were echoey and distant including those of the “As” now on scene too as well. At 3:38am, all the groups “opened up” and became vocal. They quickly settled down and calls became less frequent.
On their way west an I15 group nudged closer to Strider at 4:51am but did commit to a rub. Right up to 6:36am the I15 calls remained infrequent. A faint “A” call interjected at 6:29am. Then it was back to those very sporadic I15 calls.
Jump ahead to 7:38am and the realization that the I15s had come into Blackney Pass and were already being heard on the local hydrophone! But August’s curse of fog had spilled over into this first day of September. It was just too foggy to see – anything. We could still hear and knew that these whales made it to Blackfish Sound. Their calls were close at 7:42am and faint by 8:02am.
Jump ahead now to noon. The A42s and A94 were reported foraging off Wilby Shoals south of Cape Mudge on Quadra Island. It is great we get these reports. They have been so long in the Salish Sea that it is easy to forget that they are still there and not far from the action in Johnstone Strait – just a day’s journey really. They don’t seem motivated to leave yet.
At 12:28pm echolocation on Strider got our attention. It was followed by an A25 and A23 rub a minute later. Before the rub was over at 1:10pm we managed to identify A109 and A126. It was a pretty good effort lasting 41 minutes with underwater images of the whales engaged in the rub. Something we had to think about were the distant I15 calls at 1:02pm. Where were they, already further west?
We know that the average travel distance from Strider to Critical Point is about twenty minutes. On this occasion the whales took an efficient eighteen minutes. The A54s were heard at this time. After Critical (which is the eastern headland of Robson Bight) the trek west was marked by a passing of the Kaizumi beach area which is not that far west of the Bight but it took the whales a good hour to cover the distance regardless. The whales, noticeably the A5s, must have slowed down a lot. Their rather crazy calls were a good indicator about their state of being. They were still nearby just before 3pm. On the other side of the Strait, the Cliff was watching the A75s (of the A54s) and others from the same matriline.
Despite there being a lot of whales the calls became sporadic around and after 4pm. When the calls got going again they were on the Cracroft system. It was now 4:25pm and the whales were going to make it to Blackney!
It took only a short while of organizing off Cracroft for the whales to move properly into Blackney by 4:42pm. The inevitable dolphins were with them. Without going into details it took the various groups until 5:33pm to go from our view and into Blackfish Sound. Orcas can get through Blackney in ten minutes if they have to so this was not one of the speediest trips by far. The calls ended an hour later in Blackfish at 6:35pm.
Not forgetting the humpbacks, who are always there, moving about, making occasional calls, associating with each other occasionally, feeding and even tending their young ones. This year the humpbacks have been visiting the Hanson Island shore more frequently than in the past. At 7:56pm one humpback did just that and more. Argonaut was close and vocal on the local hydrophone. The event went on for a long time. There were more humpback sounds locally until past 10pm. From now on we will probably notice more and more vocal activity from the humpbacks in the next month or two.
We understood better why the Resident’s calls had stopped at 6:35pm. The whales, the A30s, I15s and A5s. had gone Weynton Passage only to be heard at 10:08pm again in Johnstone Strait. The calls only lasted until 10:46pm and would not resume until after midnight.
This day was a good start to September. And, although the busyness of these whales makes it feel like one day blends into another, we are just so relieved by the “normality” of it all.
Two of our most trusty assistants, Jordan and Momoko came to the end of their visits to the Lab. Jordan left on the 31st and Momoko on the 1st. Cannot say enough about how much they have been appreciated. This was Jordan’s second visit to the Lab. Momoko has been coming since forever, only missing during the COVID travel restrictions. Both, on their way to Vancouver will take their respective flights to their homes in the UK and Japan. Speedy and safe travels and thank you!
