No orcas present. Oh, Oh ... time to catch up again! We are still trying to dodge and work around the Internet glitches but this does not mean that life on the outside has stopped. There has been actually a lot happening. The A34s were heard again after midnight (12:29 am) on October 3. It was an amazing recording even though the A34s were pretty much distant in Johnstone Strait the whole time. What made it interesting were the humpbacks! One was vocal pretty close to Robson Bight while another was doing the same off the entrance to Blackney Pass. It made for an interesting chorus. An hour and 15 minutes into the recording (1:45am) the A34s made a sudden burst of calls nearer to Cracroft Point. Then the boats transiting the area took over and the the network was flooded with boat noise and no further calls were detected. The humpbacks had ceased quite a while before. At 10:12 we received a repot via the Mackay's that there was a group of orcas milling off of Nomads Island (Queen Charlotte Strait). Yesterday afternoon a radio report said that there was a group of orcas heading into Johnstone Strait from Weynton Passage. Later the Lukwa reported that it was a group of six Bigg's orcas and that they travelled east mid strait. There were no calls. A group of dolphins were in the Strait as well. Just after 4pm, another group of orcas were seen travelling west near the CP area. The observers thought they might be resident types and described two males in the group along with others, one of whom had a visible notch at the base of her dorsal fin. Our CP camera was not available so we had to rely on the radio reports and the hydrophones. Unfortunately both were quiet and uninformative. We were not aware of any orcas coming through Blackney Pass. Two humpbacks however did. Inukshuk and a companion (never saw the flukes) came in from Blackfish Sound and travelled through Blackney. We followed them on the available Parson camera. Their backlit blows we quite lovely and at the same time there were a few HB vocalizations as well. They day was not quite over. The guys working at the house in Alert Bay on the systems there came back just as the sun was setting. They were stopped at 7:30pm by a group of orcas heading west into the sunset. Possibly this may have been the same groups who had been in Johnstone Strait earlier. Were they silent residents or all Bigg's orcas? We will try to find out what we can and let you know. People in Alert Bay had been entertained by a large group of dolphins going by and later we again heard dolphins about 8:40pm. There is a lot of life out there! Helena 04 Oct 2017 08:25:29 PST