After the Northern Residents had left to the west the previous evening, there were no reports of them on September 21st.
Instead, the day turned into one of Bigg’s activity: at 11:30am, five transients were reported on the north shore of Hanson Island, travelling west. With no further sightings and without entering Blackney Pass, they remained unidentified. By 4:41pm, the Lab received another report of Bigg’s moving southeast through West Pass – giving everyone a heads-up that they might soon come into view.
After entering Blackney Pass at 4:48pm, the T055s stayed closer to the far side at first, but shortly after T055A with his towering dorsal fin angled towards the Lab. Around 5pm, there was plenty of surface activity. T055, T055B and T055C were porpoising, breaching, and tail slapping. They were surely hunting. It was just possible to see a sea lion desperately trying to escape. The orcas began to make faint calls. Unlike fish-eating residents, transients usually travel in silence to avoid alerting prey, becoming vocal only after a successful hunt.
Angling toward Sea Lion Rock and then turning back, they came directly in front of the Lab. Still active, they breached and tail slapped again. Then, at 5:54pm, in the midst of the more serious hunt the youngest, T055C, began chasing a duck, tossing and flipping it around repeatedly.
By 6:06pm the group had deliberately proceeded north into Blackfish Sound. They were still visible, but now very distant on the Sea Lion remote camera which can view the portion of Blackfish along the Swanson shore. Their calls became more robust, very clear and beautiful as they travelled on after the hunt. They continued calling incredibly for another three hours until 9:30pm. At 7pm, a humpback whale in Blackfish Sound joined in, adding its voice to the remarkable soundscape.
Another extraordinary day on the island ended with everyone buzzing with excitement. Everyone felt deeply grateful for the privilege of witnessing such a remarkable scene – and perhaps even more grateful not to have been the sea lion or duck that day.
Words by Freddy
