September 6th was largely focused around the A34s (-62s), with the family spending much of the day wandering around Blackfish Sound.
Their first calls reached Flower Island shortly after 6am, frequent but faint, before fading away around 6:25am. Starting at 7:15am, their calls were heard on Foster hydrophone and an hour later Alex reported the 34s widespread and non-directional between Duff Island and Arrow Passage.
That set the tone for much of their day, it seemed. At 10:54am, they were still milling between Swanson and Malcolm in Blackfish Sound, while their calls returned to Flower Island shortly afterwards. Through the afternoon, their voices came and went on Flower Island, occasionally accompanied by echolocation. By 3:16pm, the whales were reported to be widely spread between Bold Head and Stubbs Island. Calls became increasingly sporadic as the afternoon went on until their calls gradually grew more distant before finally fading from Flower Island around 7:30pm.
We thought we were in for a quiet night when – bam! A humpback breached just outside the lab around 10:40pm. For those of us still awake, listening from the Lab or tucked away in our tents, we may not have been able to see what was happening in the darkness, but there was no mistaking that this gentle creature was right there. Heavy blows, enormous splashes and trumpeting carried across the water, breaking the stillness of the night. And even after the surface activity settled, we were left with some wonderful vocals drifting over Flower Island, carrying us into the start of another day.
