As the A62s remained in Johnstone Strait, and then re-joined by the A34s and A67s, their distant calls were picked up on the remote systems of Kaizumi and Strider Rubbing Beach until 2am. By 2:30am, they shifted into the entrance of Blackney Pass, their calls soon detected on the Parson Island hydrophone. Not venturing further in, they held in the rip off Cracroft Point until 4:15am. This turbulent patch of water, created by strong currents funnelling to and fro through the narrow channel of the entrance way to Blackney Pass and mixing with the currents of Johnstone Strait, is often rich with fish, drawing both orcas and humpbacks to forage there.
By 7:16am, the group moved, seen again on the Cracroft Point remote camera around 9am, shifting west along the Hanson Island shoreline. Through the following hours, the whales lingered in the Cracroft Point area, going back and forth foraging, milling, and resting. At this time of year, the residents typically dedicate time for feeding in preparation for the oncoming winter months, taking advantage of the later salmon runs. As their calls continued on the Cracroft Point hydrophone, movement during this time included repeated shifts west of Cracroft Point as reported by Barbara between 10:38am and 12pm and captured on the Cracroft Island camera. Eventually they moved even further west around 1:30pm.
By 4pm, PWWA reported the A34s off the western end of Hanson Island. For the rest of the day, they remained in this general area, their occasional calls being picked up by multiple hydrophones.
As darkness descended only very distant calls were heard. In the intervening time, the A34s (now likely minus the A62s) travelled east and past the Ecological Reserve. Calls were heard off Blackfish Sound. This seemed likely to be the A62s assuming they went west earlier and through Weynton Passage in the opposite direction of the rest of the family.
As the calls of the A34s were fading, two humpbacks created a duet, one in Blackfish Sound and the other in Blackney Pass and so the night passed without further incident.
After the previous day’s heavy rain, the evening closed with beautiful sunsets over Blackney Pass and in Johnstone Strait. Multiple humpbacks surfaced in the warm light, creating a perfect scene to end the day.
Elsewhere, the A42s and A25s, not far from Vancouver, were reported by PWWA travelling north. By the afternoon, they were seen again, nearer to Gibsons Landing on the Strait of Georgia’s Sunshine Coast.
