The I15s were vocal in Johnstone Strait during the early hours but faded before 1am only to be heard again at 6:20am in Blackfish Sound. Distinctive calls likely made by the A62s preceded the I15s as we started to hear them at 5:30am in the same locale. They all sounded closer to the Flower Island hydrophone at 6:40am and were echolocating frequently. Alex reported them milling slowly off Flower Island, hoping they were feeding on chum salmon. Three others were milling off Donegal Head, possibly the I4s?
The sunrise was lovely and it was soon warm and bright in the Lab as we watched the sea lions sunbathing in the golden light. Past 8am, the calls became more sporadic as the whales moved away and, sadly for us, did not come into our view. They preferred to stay in Blackfish Sound.
At 10:35am I15s were heard on the Parson Island hydrophone. We spotted a male and female orca milling in the rip current on the Cracroft Point remote surface camera at 10:49am. We could also see about six orcas on the farside of Johnstone Strait in line with Kaikash Creek headed east. Scotty later reported that I98 and others had been rubbing at Kaizumi. This required us to look back at footage from the beach’s camera system. Indeed, from 11:26am to 11:34am three orcas, including two males, could be seen having a rub. Twelve minutes later, two other orcas came for a second rub that lasted only four minutes. This happened while we were all waving goodbye to Paul and Helena from the rocks outside the lab! Weirdly though, this rub did not show up on our audio recording, there were no chuffs or calls, but only very loud boat noise.
Concern, just before 1pm, turned to the sea lions hauled out on the Hanson Island shore. Scotty notified us after seeing one individual with a deep constriction around his neck. We scanned using the remote camera but could not immediately see this individual. We continued to survey the scene and eventually just before 6pm Laura found him amongst the crowd of sea lions. Hopefully, this individual will continue to remain in the area long enough for help to be rendered by Marine Mammal Rescue. There sadly has been at least two other entanglements reported recently in the area. One of them was successfully rescued on September 17th. See video here.
To the west, a group of orcas in Queen Charlotte Strait were keeping Alex busy. She reported at 1:20pm, seeing six, then four more “incoming” orcas. They were floating from the direction of Lizard Point. The group of four, including a male also, were headed into mid Blackfish Sound. Alex tentatively identified A83 from the A62s in the first group. As they were in range of the Flower Island hydrophone Alex remarked on how silent they were. From her vantage point the orcas looked to be off Flower Island. She witnessed three breaches as they picked up speed at 2:16pm following the tide line.
While this was unfolding, at 1:43pm, we heard a “chuff” at Strider Rubbing beach. We quickly identified I122. Along with him were the rest of his I65 family. The Strider Beach rub lasted about ten minutes and consisted of echolocation and many excited characteristic I15 “trills” and “squawks.” The whales continued east.
At 2:25pm, we heard echolocation in Robson Bight. Thirty minutes later, a silent male and a smaller whale were spotted very close to shore on the Strider surface camera, likely the I4s trailing the I65s. At 3:40pm, the latter were spotted by Olivia at Naka Creek, still going east and close to shore, with a lot of Pacific White-sided dolphins.
Back to the whales in Blackfish Sound. A whale watch report at 2:34pm had suggested that a total of fifteen whales were headed southeast. They became vocal at 2:55pm. First, we heard I15s calls and a lot of echolocation. By elimination, we now understood that we must be hearing the I16s and or the I27s. At 4:09pm, orcas entered Blackney Pass from Blackfish Sound on the far side. This entrance was accompanied by loud A1 calls of the A62s. As we saw eight whales in total, spread out including three males, and two young ones we knew that some of the I15s mentioned had accompanied them. Just like the last couple of days, they turned back North at 4:46pm, not getting close enough into Blackney Pass for us to identify them with certainty. Their collective calls continued for a long time on our Flower Island hydrophone. They faded around 7:30pm.
Before sunset, the humpback Yahtzee was lunge feeding at Burnt Point and we saw quite a few other humpbacks during the evening including Hunter, Argonaut, Squiggle and possibly Cygnus.
At 7:50pm, we heard I15 calls in Johnstone Strait, possibly the I65s or I4s returning from the East? At 8:16pm we heard a single I15 call in Blackfish Sound, followed by echolocation at 8:35pm. With this last acoustic event of the day, the Residents seemed to be holding the same positions as during the day with some of the I15s in Johnstone Strait and others to the west in Blackfish Sound.
