No calls but orcas nearby Today continued steadily, with brief notes from a humpback in Blackfish Sound and an intense few minutes watching a Sea lion guzzle down a whole salmon close to the lab. It wasn't until 2:25pm that we overheard Bill Mackay on the Naiad report that there was a group of Orca heading east at Lizard Point. We continued to wait and eventually at 3:22pm we heard the first faint calls in Blackfish Sound. Over an hour later, at 4:40pm, we saw the first dorsal fins on the Sea lion camera. At this time we could still hear very faint G-Clan calls in Blackfish Sound. A cruise ship rolled through Blackney Pass with a excited group of Pacific White-sided dolphins riding the bow wave and just at the time the first group was in sight a couple of the Orca sped up and enjoyed porpoising through the wake. They travelled south through the Pass in two groups and finally all had cleared and began to forage in the rip at the entrance to Blackney Pass by 5:57pm. Not long after we could hear distant echolocation and calls on the Critical Point hydrophone as the A30's and some of the I15s traveled east towards the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. At 7:30pm we watched on Cracroft Point camera as a group of between four and five orca west of Kaikash Creek also heading east and we heard I15 calls on the Cracroft Point hydrophone. Fifteen minutes later on the Robson Bight camera we saw a group in line with Swaine Point traveling in the middle of the Strait along with some Pacific White-sided dolphins. At 7:51pm there was a group of at least three small fins traveling east and close to the shore and at the same time we were hearing A30 calls and echolocation which then became fainter. The last echolocation we heard was at 8:02pm on the Critical Point hydrophone.  Momoko, Laura, Anika and Shari 14 Sep 2018 21:45:18 PDT Distant calls audible. Orcas are passing in front of the lab! http://explore.org/live-cams/player/orcalab-steller-sea-lion-haulout http://explore.org/live-cams/player/orcalab-base OrcaLab  14 Sep 2018 17:15:25 PDT No orcas present. It has been a while since our last update. But to be honest - it was very very quiet since 7:41am yesterday. There where no calls and no sightings in our reach. The morning started as peaceful as it could be, with the sun trying to break through the clouds, a lot of Sea Lions bellowing and also a pod of Pacific white-sided Dolphins passing by. We are hoping that maybe the A42's will finally start heading north from Powell River, as we haven't seen them for so long. We will see what the day brings us, but, it is already a great, with the news from Brazil that the moratorium on commercial whaling will not be overturned. Laura, Momoko and Shari 14 Sep 2018 10:10:50 PDT