Long before the sunrise, September 3rd was already alive with sound. The A34s carried us through the early hours, their calls and echolocation first reaching Strider Rubbing Beach just after midnight. By 3:48am, they had made their way through to Blackfish Sound and by 3:48am they were in range of Flower Island.
From around 4:17am, calls and echolocation grew steadily stronger, becoming wonderfully clear on Flower Island, even with a few happy buzzes thrown in! Their calls faded, returned, then faded again, and continued on like this through the early morning eventually becoming increasingly distant after 6am. By 7:19am, everything was quiet, leaving us to wonder if they had slipped through Weynton or headed north towards Queen Charlotte Strait.
Not long afterwards, we received a report of Bigg’s in Johnstone Strait. Allison at CP first spotted them around 7:54am, initially westbound before they switched direction and headed north towards Blackney Pass. The first few whales slipped by CP quickly and almost unnoticed, while three lagged behind and playfully rolled their bodies before catching up. The Bigg’s, who were ID’d as the T060s (-T060D and T060E) and T090s, eventually streamed into the Pass travelling north. They took their time travelling through the pass, passing some unnerved Sea Lions at Parson’s Lighthouse, and two of them deciding to cross over to Hanson Island to do a close pass by the lab before clearing around 9:20am. Out in Queen Charlotte Strait, the whales split and regrouped throughout the morning. Some headed west around Bold Head and the White Cliffs while another trio was spotted farther across the Strait heading east. Eventually all three groups turned east before changing plans yet again; by late morning the T060s and T090s were spread between Foster and Holford and heading west.
The A34s reappeared at 12:20pm, passing Donegal Head form Queen Charlotte Strait, with calls and echolocation reaching Flower Island shortly afterwards. By 1:10pm, they had completed a rather impressive loop and were back westbound in Queen Charlotte Strait.
A55 was leading the family for part of the afternoon, while A80 repeatedly peeled away to forage as everyone else slowly worked northwest. Near Penfold, the 34s spread out and milled for a while, offering some good vocals before falling quiet and settling into some rest. A80, unsurprisingly, was still busy foraging.
As the evening arrived, we had one more surprise headed our way! At 6:23pm, the T055s appeared opposite the lab in Parson Bay, travelling silently through the Pass. They crossed towards Hanson Island, giving the lab a wonderfully close pass by – two in one day! By 7:12pm they had cleared to the north and were later picked up near the Spout Islands westing close to Hanson Island.
Today, we also received an outside report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada of a possible juvenile orca with blue rope wrapped around its peduncle, first reported around 7am in Gordon Channel. This was separate from our encounters, but deeply concerning news to receive. A difficult reminder of just how much our presence in these waters can follow these animals underneath the surface. We hope the young orca is freed from the entanglement quickly and safely.
After a strange absence of whales over the past week, it was very nice to have a few more fins moving through our waters again.
