Superb sounds!! Finally the A34s have become vocal www.orca-live.net They circumnavigated Hanson Island once more and approached the entrance to Blackney Pass from the west. The first group in was the A62s this time and they were followed by the rest (including A55, A34,A67s etc). The A62s were vocal through Blackney Pass and then in Blackfish Sound. Everyone is west bound in Blackfish and judging by the many vocals probably both groups are involved. It has been more than two days since we heard their calls despite their many trips around Hanson!  Helena&Shari&Paul 30 Sep 2018 19:25:02 PDT No calls but orcas nearby This morning there were reports of orca in Blackfish Sound and for a while it looked like they might have been heading east towards us, but we heard no calls and then we heard nothing more of them once they were around Stubbs Island. We had been recording a delightful Humpback Whale song when, at 1:41pm, a group of orca surprised us in Blackney Pass, heading north. The first group had a male and sprouter who Helena quickly identified as being A55 and A80 so we knew we had the A34s back again. They were being trailed with an excited bunch of Pacific White-sidded dolphins. The second group, the four members of the A62s, followed further behind. We are unsure of whether this is the group reported earlier this morning, but it seems probable that they circumnavigated Hanson Island. They have remained entirely silent, both yesterday and today. We still have not heard any calls and when we lost sight of them on the Sea lion Rock camera they were heading passed Bold Head on Swanson Island. Helena and Shari 30 Sep 2018 15:29:45 PDT Superb sounds!! Again lovely humpback sounds in Blackfish Sound this morning. In fine form!  Helena & Shari 30 Sep 2018 06:19:06 PDT

Superb sounds!! Lovely humpback vocals continue on Flower Island. interestingly the humpback who was off the entrance to Blackney Pass when the orcas turned into the Pass earlier followed them in. never showed his flukes but once up in Blackfish he became vocal again as he was in the entrance of Blackney. Could this be the same individual? Orcalab 29 Sep 2018 20:08:36 PDT Superb sounds!! Lovely humpback vocals continue on Flower Island. interestingly the humpback who was off the entrance to Blackney Pass when the orcas turned into the Pass earlier followed them in. never showed his flukes but once up in Blackfish he became vocal again as he was in the entrance of Blackney. Could this be the same individual? Orcalab 29 Sep 2018 20:08:05 PDT No calls but orcas nearby We have been watching who we believe are the A34s from the time they entered Johnstone Strait around 5pm. They pretty much made a be-line for the entrance of Blackney Pass and then headed north. They are almost through Blackney Pass, headed toward blackfish Sound. But there has been some stalling for foraging along the way. Orcalab 29 Sep 2018 18:52:43 PDT

No orcas present. The A34's continued to the east as we could follow their calls until they got to the Bight, or so we thought! We heard lots of echolocation and calls but they did eventually became faint around 5:20pm. The fog did clear and it turned once more into a beautiful afternoon. We hadn't heard calls from that group for ten minutes when suddenly a group of four Orca popped up close to the lab heading south. We quickly identified this group to be the A62's, however Jared Towers confirmed that they had defiantly been with the rest of the group, in the Johnstone Strait earlier in the afternoon so we believe these four must have travelled north into Blackney Passage close to the time of our last update, around 4pm. They moved steadily to the south passing close to the Sea lion rock camera and cleared our view here at lab at 5:40pm. We could not find them on the Parson Island camera because of significant glare, but thankfully picked them up on the Cracroft Point camera fifteen minutes later. They spent a small about of time in the rip at the entrance to Blackney Pass before continuing to the east in a resting line. We were able to follow them on the camera until 6:28pm. While searching for them on the Robson Bight camera we did spot a black bear on the beach, and many relaxed Pacific White-sided dolphins in the Strait. We finally found the Orca again at 7:17pm when they were on the Robson Bight camera in the sunset still heading east and echolocating a great deal. While we were following the A62's the rest of the A34s, it seems, did go to the rubbing beach for a scrub. At 7:40pm the A62s cleared from view on the Robson Bight camera still heading slowly east. We did not see them again before it got dark and the last calls were very faint on the Rubbing Beach hydrophone at 8pm.  Anika and Shari 28 Sep 2018 22:40:09 PDT No calls but orcas nearby We received a report from the Lukwa of a group of Orca heading south through Weynton Pass. By 2:24pm Paul and Helena on their way to Telegraph Cove confirmed that the A34's were spread from Little Kaikash Creek out towards the middle of the Johnstone Strait heading east. At 2:33pm we heard calls in hydrophone. We did have the A34's distant on both the Parsons Island camera and the Cracroft Point camera but at 3:15pm a bank of fog rolled in and we then had no visibility. We understand that the group has continued to the east, we have not heard calls since 3:32pm, only the chatter of a group of Pacific White sided dolphins that passed by the lab at 3:27pm and continued to Johnstone Strait. We hope that the A34's will continue to the rubbing beach because the underwater camera can not be affected by the fog! Anika and Shari 28 Sep 2018 16:05:00 PDT

No orcas present. Today was all about the Humpbacks in Blackney Pass. It started at 3:19am when we heard a wonderful song in Blackfish Sound. This continued for a little under an hour becoming progressively fainter and more sporadic by 4:10am. At 4:30am one individual humpback passed close to the lab traveling north. Although dark it could easily be made out against the backdrop of moonlit fog. At 11am we heard brief interlude but nothing substantial and all remained quiet, on the hydrophones at least! If you have been enjoying the Sea lion camera as much as us you will know that it is anything but quiet above the water here. At 3pm we began to notice a lot of bird activity and then to our delight saw that there were three humpbacks also enjoying the bait balls. We followed them as best we could on the Orcalab Base camera and Anika was able to identify two of them as BCXuk2013#4 (a.k.a Ojos Blancos/White Eyes) and BCXuk2017#9. At 5:09pm another great song began and continued, again, for just under an hour though this was interspersed with a fair amount of boat noise. However, if you tune in now a beautiful song has just started in Blackfish Sound. It is loud and clear and so far no boat noise. Anika and Shari 25 Sep 2018 20:59:07 PDT No orcas present. Today was one of those days you will remember for the rest of your life. It was truly breathtaking! Last night ended with some nice Humpback sounds from Blackfish Sound. The morning started very rainy and foggy. At 10:17am Jared Towers reported that Bigg's (T100's and T002B's) were coming our way from Plumpers. Half an hour later they came silently into our view from Blackfish Sound heading south. We could see one big male, 5 small fins and a calf. They took a long dive and then suddenly started to become vocal at 11:20am. Right when they where straight in front of the Lab they started to turn around, and suddenly the big male, T100C, and the calf started breaching five times in a row! But it didn't end here. There was a lot of water splashing, and we realized that the group was hunting Sea Lions. We believe they took there time to teach the calf how to hunt and perhaps they were so incredibly vocal for the same reason. They breached quiet often in front of us and the vocalizations did not stop as they slowly made their way south. At 12:08pm the group was out of sight, but we followed them on our cameras into the Johnstone Strait, where they continued to hunt. At 2:40pm the Bigg's made their way further east in the Strait, and stopped calling. After 3:16pm we could still see some faint blows on our cameras, but lost them after a while in the glare. Laura, Anika, Momoko & Shari 25 Sep 2018 00:49:11 PDT

Superb sounds!! We are hearing Bigg's calls! Currently they are hunting in front of Parson Island cam! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-parson-island Shari & Momoko 24 Sep 2018 12:05:10 PDT Orcas approaching Orcalab. We have heard no calls yet but have a group of Orca travelling south through Blackney Passage. You can watch too! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Shari 24 Sep 2018 10:57:51 PDT

No orcas present. It was another beautiful but quiet day here at Orcalab. We enjoyed sea lions passing by the Lab and foraging in the cove. We received a report from Captain Bill on Naiad that at least the A34’s and I15’s were 12 miles west of Numas Island, really spread out. At 2:34pm, they were just entering Gordon Channel, foraging but still slowly going west. Thanks for the report! We started hearing a humpback whale song from Blackfish Sound at 7:07pm, but he became quiet by now. Laura & Momoko 23 Sep 2018 20:02:36 PDT

No orcas present. The A34's went too far west for us to hear any more calls, not long after our last update. We heard their last calls at 2:45pm from the Strait. At 6:55pm we started to hear faint calls from Blackfish Sound, but unfortunately they did not continue for long, we guess the whales kept going to Queen Charlotte Strait. The last calls were at 9:11pm. We enjoyed a beautiful moonrise here at the Lab, while all the Sea Lions were roaring and a Humpback was passing by heading into Blackfish Sound. At 8:27pm, we picked up a nice Humpback song from Blackfish Sounds which we are still listening to!  Orcalab 22 Sep 2018 21:29:34 PDT Distant calls audible. The A34s continued travelling to the east to the Main Rubbing Beaches last night. The last calls we heard were at 1:47am. At the same time, we were listening to beautiful humpback whale song from Blackfish Sound. At 5:20am, we started hearing A34 calls again from Rubbing Beach as they came back from the east, but went silent pretty quick. At 7:50am, they started calling again from the Bight on their way to the west. Their calls were very distant until 9:26am, when we heard first close calls from our Cracroft Point hydrophone. We tried to find the A34's on our Cracroft Point camera, but the fog was very thick this morning, so it wasn't that easy. Twenty minutes later we found them on our camera, and followed them to the entrance of Blackney Pass, where they began to forage for the next three hours. At 1:16pm they went out of sight of our cameras, as they made their way further west in the Strait, but we could still listen to some faint calls. We know they have continued slowly to the west in the Johnstone Strait, but we wait to see if they turn again or continue towards Weynton Passage.  Laura, Momoko, Anika and Shari 22 Sep 2018 14:20:59 PDT Distant calls audible. The A34s are foraging off Cracroft Point! Watch now on http://explore.org/live-cams/player/orcalab-cracroft-point-surface Shari & Momoko 22 Sep 2018 10:02:58 PDT

Distant calls audible. After our last update, the A34s had turned to the east in Johnstone Strait. After 8pm, their calls were getting louder and at 8:36pm, we started hearing them on Parson Island hydrophone. After a short break, we picked up their calls again. It sounds like they are approaching Robson Bight right now. Nice to listen to their lovely calls! Orcalab 21 Sep 2018 23:35:25 PDT Distant calls audible. Unfortunately no pictures were able to give us sufficient clues as to who the breaching Humpback was that we reported in the last update and we were still discussing the Biggs at 1:34pm when we heard some faint A34 calls in Blackfish Sound. Over the next hour these calls became steadily louder and an overheard radio transmission confirmed that a group of Orca were heading east towards Blackney Pass. At 3:04pm one male entered our view and continued to travel steadily south through Blackney Pass. Shortly after two small fins came in to view with distant A1 calls heard. More Orca trickled in to the pass and by the time the male, who Momoko swiftly identified as A55, was opposite the lab there were now five small fins and one sprouter with him and they all continued south, nicely grouped, in a resting line clearing from our view at 3:24pm. While we were looking to follow these seven members of the A34's on the Parson Island camera, the four small fins who make up the A62's and complete the A34 matriline, popped up opposite the lab in Blackney Pass. These four cleared to the south exactly ten minutes later and went on to join the seven others foraging in the rip at the entrance of Blackney Pass. We are still watching them on the Cracroft Point camera and it seems they are generally heading west. The Sea lion camera continues to delight and with at least seventy individuals hauled up on the rocks surrounding the camera we are spoilt for angles to watch. They are truly mesmerizing!  Momoko, Laura, Anika and Shari 21 Sep 2018 17:18:22 PDT Orcas approaching Orcalab. Orcas just came in into Blackney Pass from the north! Probably the A34's! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 21 Sep 2018 15:02:41 PDT No calls but orcas nearby It is a very windy and rainy day here at Orcalab. We enjoyed a humpback whale breaching in Blackney Pass this morning. At 10:32am, we spotted a group of Bigg's orcas, two males and one small fin, opposite the Lab, going north. They went out from the view of the Lab at 11am. We are working on identifying the group of Bigg's and the humpback whale at the moment! Orcalab 21 Sep 2018 12:12:58 PDT No calls but orcas nearby Orcas just entered Blackney Pass heading north! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 21 Sep 2018 10:42:08 PDT