With fog hiding the whales in the morning, several groups moving through the area, and one particularly exciting reunion waiting for us later in the day, September 7th was a day that kept us guessing.
The A34s got us going early in the morning at 8:15am when they began calling on Strider Rubbing Beach. Their voices soon echoed across Kaizumi, while the Cracroft Point team began hearing blows through the thick fog in Johnstone Strait. Blows seemed to come from all around Critical Point and Little Kaikash, while fins briefly appeared and vanished back into the mist. A55 was reported closest to Cracroft Point around 9:56am, with the rest of the family widely spread and partaking in some foraging.
Then, at 10:11am, came some very exciting news: another group of orcas had been spotted off Numas Islands, later confirmed as the A62s! They had been absent from the rest of the A34s recently, so hearing they were nearby was great news. By 11:22am they were slowly eastbound at Numas and around 12:57pm were four miles from Lizard Point and beginning to pick up speed. Even more excitingly, it sounded as though the A62s and the rest of the A34s might have been calling back and forth across the distance.
There may also have been some Bigg’s moving through the area earlier that morning with a report of T049A2 entering the Strait from the east around 8:40am and travelling west. He was later spotted off Telegraph Cove at 1:28pm. Then, we had a bit of a surprise. Just before 1pm, we had some Bigg’s, later ID’ed as the T023Ds, appear opposite the Lab in Blackney Pass. They made their way north to Parson Light before turning back south through the Pass, passing second bay and onto Bells Rocks. They continued to pop in and out of view for a while afterwards, keeping their intentions suitably mysterious.
Meanwhile, the A34s (-62s) were doing plenty of backtracking themselves. They were reported slowly travelling north through Weynton Passage before turning east again along the Hanson island side. By 3pm, A80 and A55 were spotted around Blinkhorn, with several whales resting briefly at the surface and PWDs joining them. At 3:08pm, the A34s were all together (-62s) as they crossed the Strait in view of the Cracroft Point camera. The A62s were making their own way east through Blackfish Sound off Bold Head.
From Cracroft Point, the A34s decided to continue into Blackney Pass travelling north. A80 led the way followed by A55 with the rest of the 34s (67s & 96s) following closely behind him. They cleared the Pass around 4:10pm and soon settled into Blackfish Sound, where they spread out west of Flower Island to forage amongst plenty of PWDs. Their calls continued across Flower Island, as the A62s drew closer.
And then, finally, the moment we’d all been waiting for! At 5:11, we received a confirmation report that there was a “cuddle puddle”, leading us to believe that the whole A34 family was together again, including the A62s! Shortly afterwards, Flower Island came alive with chatter, lots of different voices and some wonky calls.
The reunited family stayed together into the evening, eventually appearing to aim for Weynton Passage. By 6:37pm, the A62s, A67s, and A34s were packed tightly together, with the males having had formed their own little mingle nearby. A huge ebb pouring out along the Plumper Islands seemed to bring their progress to a standstill, leaving everyone bunched up with no clear direction in mind.
Calls grew faint through the evening, although echolocation and the occasional buzz continued on Flower Island. The family was still hanging around mid-Blackfish at 8:41pm.
As the orcas quieted, the PWDs lit up the hydrophones with some spunky phrases. Their clear squeaks and chatter took over to finish the night, sounding remarkably like a group of underwater minions having an extremely animated conversation. We have no idea what they were discussing, but they certainly had a lot to say about the day.
