No orcas present.

It has been a very quiet day. A minke and two humpbacks turned up but no sign of any orcas. There have been very few "no orca" days this season so it is a little hard to get use to the quiet. In July we had only one day without orcas but they were in the east so technically still in the "area". In August there was also one day where the whales stayed east for the entire day. So far in September there have been two totally blank days. All in all the activity level has been fairly constant. The month the I15s were here was particularly intense. We have actually recorded more this year, by this time, than last year. So far we have seen: all the A1s, A4s, A5s,Bs, Cs, Gs and Rs. We have not seen: the Ds, Hs, I1s, I2s, I17 & I18s. The Ds & Hs have been tending to use the Johnstone Strait area less frequently than they did in the 1980s. The Hs after their pod suffered several deaths hooked up with the I17s and I18s, groups which only ever came into the Johnstone Strait area once or twice a season, as have the I1s & I2s. Although the C6s, Ws and R2s showed up they hardly spent anytime in the area and that is somewhat uncharacteristic. What has been interesting this year has been the use of the lower part of the Johnstone Strait (what we call the east) by the groups especially the A4s and the A5s. The A8s (A5s) and the A11s(A4s) seemed to be "down there" forever. The season certainly isn't over yet and it will be interesting to see who comes by while the dog (chum) salmon are running.
Helena
30 Sep 2005 16:38:49 PDT