Distant calls audible. A quiet afternoon of attempting to identify Humpback whales was followed by a fairly busy evening here at the lab. We received a report at 11:27am of at least the A54s, I16s and I4s northwest of Foster Island, heading west. At 2pm we received a report from the Naiad that there were orcas easting between Donegal Head and Lizard Point, and just before 3pm, Dylan on the Skana confirmed that these orcas were still easting at Donegal, fairly spread out. We didn't have long to wait until we heard them on our hydrophone in the Blackfish Sound: at 3:53pm we first heard the A30s, and by 4:35pm the A5s and I15s had come within range too. Dylan confirmed that he was seeing the A50s (from the A30s), some I15s and the A25s. We continued to monitor their calls as they travelled against the ebbing tide. There was one brief stint where we lost their calls and thought they might have taken Weynton Pass into the Johnstone Strait, but at 5:08pm we heard the A30s again, louder in Blackfish Sound. At 5:24pm, we saw the first few dorsal fins in Blackney Pass, travelling south. They continued to fight the ebb until 5:47pm, when they turned back north. We saw around 7 orcas in total, including a mother and baby, and heard mixed A30, I15 and A5 calls throughout. Sadly, there was a lot of boat noise this evening and it was a little difficult to keep track of them, but we believe that they were all intermingled as they travelled. At 6:02pm they cleared our view to the north back into Blackfish Sound. We can still hear faint A30 calls in the Blackfish Sound, and are waiting to see which direction they choose. Suzie & Shari 06 Sep 2018 18:28:18 PDT No orcas present. The A30s came back from the east first around 2:15am. We heard a few I15 sounding pings around 3am. Around 3:30am we began to hear A30 calls on Critical Point. At 3:50am we heard some echolocation on rubbing beach and a few trills (possibly from the I15s.) Around 4am we heard some really nice A30 calls in the bight with a little bit of echolocation. We started to hear some A5 calls at around 4:30am on the Critical Point hydrophone, identified thanks to the wonderful Tomoko listening all the way from Japan! At 5:13am we started to hear some A calls on the Cracroft Point hydrophone. These calls continued sporadically through some bad boat noise and around 5:39am they became a little louder and we could hear the A30s. At 5:53am we heard them on Parson Island, and we believe that at least some of the A30s passed by the lab to the north just after 6am, although it was too dark to ID them. Just as they cleared, we heard the I15s on Parson Island, and sure enough, they followed suit at around 6:30am: travelling to the north past the lab. We counted around 12 fins including 2 big fins, but it was still fairly dark and foggy (although very beautiful), so it was difficult to identify them. Our best guess is that this group could be a large proportion of the I15s, or a mixture of the I15s and A30s (although it is worth noting that, as they passed, all we heard was I15 calls.) They had cleared our view by 6:50am and stopped calling for a while. At 7:17am we heard faint I15 calls in Blackfish Sound, and soon after at 7:25am we heard the A30s again. We last heard faint I15 calls in Blackfish Sound at 8:07am. So all in all a fairly busy morning! Our questions as the day goes on include: who where the A5s we heard at 4:30am and where did they get to? How many of the I15s did we have pass by the lab? Are all the A30s together or still separated into their two matrilines? We hope to gain some clarity as we roll into the afternoon! Megan, Suzie and Shari 06 Sep 2018 10:02:58 PDT Superb sounds!! The orcas did not come into Blackney Pass as we had hoped, however we continued to watch them on our Sealion Rock camera milling around just off of Swanson Island. We continued to hear A30, I15 and I11 calls (including some nice I11 pings) on our Flower Island hydrophone until 6:50pm. Then at 9:46pm a very faint A1 call was heard on our Robson Bight hydrophone and then silence until 10:58pm when we started to hear faint I15 calls and echolocation also. Shortly after this we also heard A30 and A5 calls. The calls and echolocation continued, cycling between loud and faint on the hydrophone as they foraged. Unfortunately at 1am there was some very loud boat noise and it was difficult to hear the orcas again until 1:12am when we picked them up on our Rubbing Beach hydrophone. We are continuing to hear their calls as they move east, perhaps they will go for an early morning rub! Sian 06 Sep 2018 01:57:31 PDT