Summary for August 31 2019 A50, A54, A25, A42, I4, I16, I65, I27 Some days the pieces to the puzzle just seem to come together effortlessly. This day was like that. By chance between 2 and 2:30am, with a high tide task to do (don’t ask), we heard blows in the Pass on the far shore. They seemed to be southbound. Indeed, an hour later we heard calls in Johnstone Strait as the A50s, A54s A42s ,I4s and A25s headed east toward the Bight. Up until then there had not been any calls, no clues about the whereabouts of the A30s, A5s and I4s who had passed through Blackney to the north earlier the previous evening. From 3 to 3:26am the calls were clear and steady but unfortunately a large cruise ship with the world’s worst propulsion system and a tug, coming from the opposite direction, flooded the Strait with disturbing levels of boat noise and the calls were lost to us for a time. They eventually picked up again and by 4:54am the whales were approaching the Main rubbing beach east of Robson Bight. The calls became loud and clear by 5:12am and remained so until 5:30am. The whales were still in range from 6am to 7am but were then quite distant and infrequent. There must have been a split in the groups with the A54s and A25s continuing east while the A42s, A50s and I4s headed west. They arrived back in the Bight by 9:53am. The A42s, A79 in particular, were both visible on the camera and heard on the hydrophone. Eventually these groups pushed on toward Cracroft Point and the entrance of Blackney Pass by favouring the Vancouver Island side. They had an agenda! They seemed to be content to go no further than the entrance of Blackney Pass. For quite a while they foraged and milled, pacing back and forth, calling continuously. The reason soon became obvious. There was a report at 11:30am of another group in Blackfish Sound heading east favouring the Hanson shore off Double Bay. Soon after, a different report suggested that the A25s and others (we assumed their favoured companions, the A54s) were heading west fast from the area adjacent to the Adam River in the more eastern portion of the Strait. Forty-five minutes later, the rest of the I15 pod matrilines, the I16s, I27s and I65s, rushed through Blackney Pass headed to Johnstone Strait. This was the first time this season that the I16s had come back. Whales being who they are accommodated the new comers by making room. They shifted west while the newly arriving I15s hurried eastward. These I15s didn’t go too far. By 1:30pm the A25s and A54s passed by the Cliff site opposite the Bight. Now it was the I15s turn to make room for them. They turned back toward CP and mixed in with the I4s and A50s who had by now returned to the CP/Blackney Pass entrance. The A42s decided to continue independently westward toward Telegraph Cove and eventually Beaver Cove by 3:15pm. The scene in front of CP was one of dorsal fins going every which way, back and forth, grouping, regrouping, spy hopping and tail slapping. A lone Humpback worked the Blackney Pass rip while the confusion of orcas continued. Around 4:30pm the groups eventually shifted more determinedly to the west. There had been continuous calls throughout the afternoon. When the whales went through Weynton Pass we could no longer hear their calls. But at 6:20pm they emerged on the Blackfish Sound side and as they crossed toward Bold Head from the Plumper Islands their calls were audible once again. However, the calls remained distant to about 7:30pm as the whales took the rest of the ebb current out to Queen Charlotte Strait. The busy day seemed to be drawing to an end. The fog closed in once again as did the evening light signalling the end of this rather interesting day. Today we said good-bye to Emily. We will miss her cheery disposition and very keen ear for whale sounds. We hope Emily travels and upcoming school year go well. Take good care! OrcaLab 31 Aug 2019 21:48:37 PDT

Daily Summary for August 30, 2019: A42s, A30s, I4s, and A25s!! It was a long and exciting night indeed! After 9:00pm, the orcas didn’t vocalize for some time until they decided to come in for a rub at our Main Rubbing beach at 10:30pm. They spent the night vocalizing on and off in the Rubbing Beaches, obviously having a fun time! They finally decided to exit the beaches to the west at 6:00am and the calls went silent except for a bit of echolocation at 7:00am in the Bight. At 8:54am, Jared reported that there were orca at Bold Head and were heading in the direction of the Fosters Island. Meanwhile, our resident orcas were making their way further west into the Strait. They were vocal until 10:07am and were at Bauza westing along Vancouver Island shore at 10:09am. This sighting at Bauza confirmed that it was the I4s, A25s, A42s and A30s. Later on it was pretty quiet, call wise. Finally, at 11:38am we got a report from Shari at Cracroft Point that the residents were going east outside of Telegraph Cove and by 12:43pm they were heading east between Blinkhorn and Kaikash, 500 meters off of Vancouver Island shore. At 1:28pm, the residents finally decided to speak up and we heard some distant A5 and A1 calls on Cracroft Point! Soon afterwards the orcas were spotted just off the CP platform traveling east. They vocalized excitedly for a bit and foraged around the entrance to Blackney Pass before moving in front of the CP platform at 2:02pm. It was then that Megan and Shari were able to ID I76, A66 and Bend (A72), confirming that the A42s and I4s were there with the A50s. They were in front of the CP platform for a while where they foraged and vocalized excitedly (we’re guessing from all the fish they were snacking on)! The resident group started to head east back into the Johnstone Strait at 2:59pm and were off Izumi still heading east at 3:22pm. At 3:44pm, they started to vocalize excitedly (with some goofy calls) in the Bight and they were very chatty for a while. They were found foraging and playing on the Robson Bight camera at 4:35pm. The calls continued and they even echolocated super close to the hydrophone! The orcas slowly continued east and we lost them on the Robson Bight camera at 4:59pm. At 5:29pm, the orcas had entered the Rubbing Beaches and had started to echolocate. They came pretty close to the shore and had a quick rub before heading back west towards the Bight. Not even 20 minutes later, the group was back in the Bight foraging and vocalizing close to the hydrophone. We got some awesome footage on the Robson Bight camera as the group slowly traveled west towards CP favouring the Vancouver Island side. We lost track of the orca on the camera at 6:29pm, however vocalizations in the Bight continued until 7:24pm. Almost an hour later after losing them on the Robson Bight camera, the group of residents showed up at Cracroft Point vocalizing and still heading west towards Blackney Pass. After a long day of traveling, the residents decided to enter into Blackney Pass and by 7:32pm they were at Parson Light. The I4s, A42s, A25s and possibly the A50s traveled north through the Pass at a rapid pace, with the A42s coming closer to the Hanson Island shore as per usual. There were lots of calls in front of the lab during their journey across the Pass - how exciting! The orcas had cleared into Blackfish Sound by 7:58pm, where they continued to excitedly vocalize until 8:50pm when there was a break in the calls for more than an hour. Things started up again in Blackfish Sound at 10:01pm and boy was there a party! There were funky and excited calls all over the place - a perfect end to a perfect day!  Emily 30 Aug 2019 23:28:17 PDT

Daily Summary for August 29, 2019: A42s, A30s, I4s, A25s and Bigg’s! Since the last report, it was fairly uneventful until the daylight brought with it A5 calls and lots of beautiful fog! The distant A5 calls on Cracroft Point at 7:17am continued on and off for about 25 minutes, before going quiet. At 7:47am, the “Silver Bear” reported that there were orca in Weynton Pass heading south towards Telegraph Cove in the fog. Again at 8:02am, the A5s were heard on the CP station and their calls continued until 8:33am. The foggy conditions were challenging but at 9:00am, four orcas were seen heading east past Kaikash Creek favouring the Vancouver Island side, and at 9:36am, the A5 vocalizations on Cracroft Point returned. The calls only lasted until 9:59am. At 10:49am, the “Naiad Explorer” reported that the A25s, I4s and A30s were off Stubbs Island heading through Weynton. This led us to believe that the A5s we were hearing in the Strait were the A42s and that they were well ahead of the others. Indeed, they were off the Main Rubbing beach by 11:10am. They turned back soon after and at 11:24am they were in the Bight. They were foraging, and among them was the tall adult male fin of Surf (A66). At 11:45am, Holly (A42), with her two babies, was seen porpoising and spy-hopping - what a nice surprise! At 11:54am, there were lots of calls and echolocation as they continued to forage. At 12:02pm, the whale watch boat the “Prince of Whales” found a group of Bigg’s orcas off White Beach Pass traveling south through Blackney Pass. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick in front of the lab that we couldn’t see them, but we were able to hear at least 6 blows at 12:09pm. The Bigg’s orcas continued into Johnstone Strait. They were off Cracroft Point at 12:22pm. Megan and Shari were able to film them as they passed to the east and later, looking at their pictures and film were able to confirm the IDs suggested earlier by the “Naiad Explorer” as the T036s and individuals T049C, T065A2, and T07B3. Interestingly enough, The “Naiad” had encountered T065A2 the day before by himself. At 2:20pm, the A42s were traveling west with A66 traveling mid strait on the Vancouver Island side. They were very playful and vocalized every once in a while. Meanwhile, the groups from the west were also closer to Cracroft Point and the A42s were mid strait abeam the Kaikash area heading west. It was a meeting waiting to happen. The Bigg’s orcas were moving offshore towards mid strait by 12:49 pm east of the Sophia’s. In the meantime, Surge (A61), was foraging east of the CP camp platform. The A42s, shifted around a bit stalling before joining the others in the entrance to Blackney Pass later. For the others, there was a lot of milling, vocalizing and foraging over the next while in the area off Cracroft Point and the entrance to Blackney Pass. At 1:14pm, we got our first I15 calls of the day on CP helping us to confirm that the I4s were there with the others. A big group passed in front of the CP platform at 1:23pm and I76 and A72 (Bend) with her baby were easily identified. At 1:48pm CP noticed that the A42s had turned around again and were traveling west, mid-strait towards Blackney Pass. At 2:59pm, Megan commented that the orcas were beginning to head west, mid-strait towards Big Bay. We didn’t have any more vocalizations until 3:19pm when distant calls were heard on CP. At 4:38pm, “Ocean Magic II” reported that the residents were westing at Blinkhorn on the Vancouver Island shore. The distant calls continued until 5:10pm with the whales now fairly far to the west. At 7:44pm, CP saw a different group of Bigg’s (unidentified) traveling west opposite the CP platform and at 7:50pm, they lost sight of the Bigg’s who had actually slipped into Blackney Pass and headed north where the “Prince of Whales”, out quite late in the day, reported seeing them off Flower Island in Blackfish Sound at 8:05pm. While this was all going on the A5s, A30s and I15s had turned and were progressing east in the Strait towards the Bight. They were back off the entrance to Blackney Pass, most likely closer to Vancouver island at 7:47pm. Not long after they were kicking it up in the Bight! The vocals were amazing and crazy at the same time! Looks like we’re in for a long and exciting night here at OrcaLab!  Orcalab 29 Aug 2019 23:56:32 PDT

Daily Summary for August 28, 2019: Orcas in the Bight and rubbing in the Reserve! It was another beautiful day at OrcaLab! After hearing A30s in the Johnstone Strait at 9:00pm last night, they became very chatty and moved farther into the Bight. While the vocals continued in the Bight, we heard some A5 calls in Blackfish Sound at 9:34pm. Shortly before 10pm, we heard possible G-clan calls in Blackfish Sound before the calls stopped entirely in that area at 9:57pm. Meanwhile, the calls in the Bight were becoming more clear and frequent despite there being lots of boat noise. At 10:03pm we also could hear G-clan calls in the Bight, which was interesting - they mixed up with the A25 calls really nicely! About half an hour later we heard echolocation in the Bight and presumed the orcas were going to head east into the Reserve. Indeed, calls were getting more distant in the Bight and we started to hear them in the Reserve at 10:53pm. We continued to hear calls until about 3:00am. At 4:00am, we began to hear A30 and A5 calls back in the Bight. The calls were echoey and slightly haunting. They continued to vocalize in the Bight until 5:26am when there was a short burst of echolocation before it went silent. At 7:00am, we got a report from Megan and Shari that there were calls at Cracroft Point and that a group of 7+ orcas, one of them being a male, were heading towards Blackney Pass. Unfortunately, the conditions were very foggy and we couldn’t see anything more than a few meters from the lab, but we were able to hear blows outside at 7:24am moving north through the Pass. There were no calls until 7:47am when suddenly there were loud calls on Local Left and in Blackfish Sound! We heard the A25s, A30s, and possibly the I4s. We think it was a meeting of the groups just on the cusp of Blackfish Sound and Blackney Pass. Not too long after those groups passed through, we heard blows at Hump of Compton, leading us to believe that the A42s were trailing behind, possibly traveling with a G-clan and were going to meet up with the A30s, A25s and possibly the I4s in Blackfish Sound. We continued to have distant calls in Blackfish Sound until 9:30am. Then, at 9:44am, we got a report from the Ocean Magic that there were orca heading west at Donegal Head and another report that there were orca at Egeria Shoal. We didn’t hear anything again until 10:09am, when we heard A5 calls in Blackfish Sound. At 10:27am, we got a report from Shari that the orca were spread out between Egeria Shoal and the Plumpers and were heading down Blackfish Sound. We then heard A1 along with A5 calls in Blackfish Sound at 10:28am and later I15 calls at 10:48am. The orcas in Blackfish Sound were very excited about something and chatted continuously. Finally, the orcas made their way down through Blackfish Sound and emerged in the north entrance of Blackney Pass at 11:27am. The visibility was still pretty bad, but we were able to identify the A25s, A30s and I15s through their vocals on Local Left! They traveled quickly south through the Pass and had cleared by 11:49am. After that, the calls continued on Cracroft Point. At 1:00pm, we heard very faint and brief calls in the Bight, while there were still vocals in CP. Later, at 1:22pm, we were able to locate a group on the CP camera heading west while favouring the Vancouver Island side. At 1:30pm, we got a report from Bill that the orcas were approaching Turn Point and at 2:29pm, we got another report from Bill that there were Bigg’s at Beaver Cove. At 2:31pm, we got a report from Megan that the residents were between Bauza and Beaver Cove. The calls continued on CP until 2:44pm, when we started to hear some distant calls in the Bight as well! We continued to hear faint A5 calls on CP and faint A30 calls in the Bight for a while until we got some distant I4 calls at 3:56pm! The distant calls continued on CP and in the Bight until 4:37pm when it went silent. At 4:40pm, we got a report from the Ambient Light that a group was traveling east along the Vancouver Island shore. At 4:43pm we got a report from Megan that there were 15+ blows in two groups on the Vancouver Island side heading east away from little Kaikash. At 4:44pm, we got another report from Megan that the lead group had 3 blows and the 2nd group had at least 12 blows if not more. At 4:46pm, we were able to locate them on the CP camera, even though they were still quite distant. We continued to follow them on the CP camera, but there were no vocalizations until 5:18pm, when we heard very, very faint calls in the background. We eventually lost them on the CP camera due to the distance. We finally got calls again in the Bight at 5:54pm! At 6:25pm, we found the orca foraging on the Robson Bight camera. About twenty minutes later, we saw them on the Rubbing Beach camera. They began to vocalize and we also heard some echolocation. We were so happy to see the orcas on the camera foraging and playing and best of all…rubbing on our underwater camera!!! Since the group was so close to shore, we also got some amazing vocals! After the rubbing action, the group split into two and one turned west back into the Bight and the other headed east, although they may have turned around and headed west, too. At 7:34pm, we had echoing calls in the Bight, which were coming closer every second! We could seem them clearly on the Robson Bight camera where it looked like they were foraging. The group in the Bight was spread out and stayed in the area for about 15 minutes before continuing on west. We continued to hear calls in the Bight until 8:19pm. At 8:20pm, we got a report from the Prince of Whales that the orca were slowly heading west at the Boundary and were in a fairly spread out group with I76 and I4 possibly in the lead. At 8:23pm, we spotted the orca at Izumi Rock together with the Prince of Whales zodiac on the CP camera. We finally started hearing distant calls on the CP hydrophone at 8:33pm. The calls continued on and off until 9:02pm. What a day, that’s all folks! Orcalab 28 Aug 2019 23:01:56 PDT

Superb sounds!! Just before 1am there were calls heard in Robson Bight as the whales headed east. The calls lasted until 1:12am and then it was quiet. We are not sure if the Main rubbing beach system was having issues but the morning sunrise was beautiful with no immediate sign of orcas in Johnstone Strait until the Naiad Explorer reported a group entering, from the east, into Robson Bight and travelling west along the Vancouver Island shore. Shortly afterward A30 calls were heard on the Main rubbing beach system, issues seemingly resolved. The whales sounded excited. As the whales hurried westward a mum and a baby were seen rubbing on the underwater camera. As the westward movement continued toward the Kaikash and Cracroft Point area there were at least 3 humpbacks in Blackney Pass. There has been increased humpback activity lately in Blackney Pass, as well as, off Cracroft Point. All the orcas generally remained closer to the Vancouver Island shore, however, at 1:39pm, the A50s foraged off of Cracroft Point. By 4:39pm, the whale watch boats were reporting that the whales were headed toward Blinkhorn and Telegraph Cove. The afternoon glare is always a challenge when looking west from Cracroft Point but just after 5pm we could make out distant blows in the direction of Blinkhorn. Then at 5:19pm Megan found another group heading west off Little Kaikash. IDs were difficult given the distance and conditions. After a short break Megan and Shari again reported that there was a group, now headed east, off Little Kaikash Beach (west of CP) and by 8:06pm there was a group mid strait off of the Blackney Pass area. We located these orcas on the Parson Island camera heading north into Blackney Pass and then identified them at 8:37pm as the A42s as they came into view of the Sea Lion camera. The A42s continued north through Blackney Pass. A66 became engaged with a humpback just off the Parson Island Light. Both rolled over and around each other. A little while later a juvenile (possibly A88) also swam beside the still rolling humpback. Ahead, the others, A42 and A79 in a tighter group with their young ones foraged as they carried on toward Blackfish Sound. There were only a few calls. Just before 9pm we began to hear the A30s who were still in Johnstone Strait - a good clue that there was about to be a lot of movement in the next few hours.  Orcalab 27 Aug 2019 22:26:56 PDT

The day started out early at 6:29am when we started hearing A42 calls on Critical Point. The calls quickly became more distant, echoey and less frequent. At 6:47am, we were able to catch a short glimpse of orcas on the Robson Bight camera heading east. They kept calling on and off again until 6:56am and then went quiet until they started up again on Cracroft Point at 8:00am. Just before that, at 7:30am, we received a report that the orcas had been seen at Sophia Islands heading west, mid-strait. At 8:00am, we got another report the orcas were approaching Cracroft Point/Hanson Island. We finally located the orcas on the Cracroft Point camera at 8:07am and were able to ID A61 and Bend (A72). The whales were spread out and to the right of Kaikash. We lost sight of them at 8:22am, however at 8:25am, we got a report from the CP camp that they had seen I76 and that he was travelling mid-strait with a group close to the Vancouver Island side in between Kaikash, little Kaikash and the entrance of Blackney Pass. Not too long afterwards, at 8:59am, we got a report from Megan and Shari at CP that the orcas were heading west and that there were two humpbacks milling around their deck - how special! At 9:05am, we got a report from the Sail Cone that orcas were heading west along the top end of Hanson Island. We continued to hear on and off calls on Cracroft Point and echoing calls in the bight until 9:31am. It was quiet for a few hours, but it picked up again at 12:50pm when we got a report from Shari that a group was abeam Big Bay, mid-strait. Shortly after, at 1:09pm, we started hearing distant A5 and A30 calls on Cracroft Point! At 1:24pm, we got another report from Shari saying that there was one male at Kaikash and another group that was east of Kaikash, favouring the Vancouver Island side. This group had six smaller fins and one male. At 2:08pm, we got a report from the Prince of Whales that one group had headed into the Bight and another group had been stalled at Izumi and it looked like they were angled towards Blackney. At this point, the calls had stopped on Cracroft Point, but we were hoping to pick them up in the Bight soon. Our wishes came true when at 2:37pm, we started hearing distant A5 calls in the Bight! At 2:53pm, we spotted a spread out group on camera foraging in the Bight and were able to get some incredible footage of two babies playing about! The calls became less frequent and eventually faded out, but we continued to follow the orcas on the Robson Bight camera and at 3:43pm, could see them heading west back into the Johnstone Strait. At 4:05pm, we got a report from Shari at CP that there were orcas at the Sophia’s heading west, on the Cracroft Island side. Soon, we were able to spot three groups on the Cracroft camera, spread out from the Sophia’s to east Blackney Pass. Slowly, the first group made their way into Blackney Pass at 5:05pm. The A25s were in the lead with the I4s followed by a second group, the A50s and finally a third group, the A42s. We were able to Identify individuals A61, I76, A66, Bend (A72) AND Holly (A42)! All three groups traveled swiftly north, with the A42s coming within close proximity of the lab again, lucky us! They were quite quiet during their journey through the Pass, but as soon as they exited into Blackfish Sound at 5:39pm they were chatting up a storm! They continued to be vocal in Blackfish Sound until 6:43pm at which point we had…drum roll please…a humpback breaching in front of the lab!! Multiple times!! It was a pretty magnificent end to our day, to say the least. Although that wasn’t the real end of our day! At 8:38pm, we started hearing distant A5, A30 and I4 calls in Blackfish Sound. They were pretty excited about something, as they were very chatty! They are continuing to vocalize in Blackfish Sound and we are hoping that they’ll pay us one of their nightly visits in front of the lab! Today we had to say goodbye to one our dear assistants, TJ who has been with us since the beginning of June. We wish her well and hope that she has safe travels ahead of her!  Emily 26 Aug 2019 22:05:54 PDT

Summary of August 25th: A30s, A50s, A54s, A25s, A42s, I4s all coming through Blackney Passage! Some time before first light the orcas made it back to Johnstone Strait. Just before 6 am we heard distant calls on the Critical Point hydrophone on and off until we could see the orcas on the Critical Point camera in the morning light at 7.11 am. There were two groups - one headed further east from Robson Bight, the other group headed a little west. Just a quarter of an hour later a group of orcas had been seen foraging at the Boundary on our camera and heard with echolocation on our hydrophone. They were guided by some dolphins. Around the same time we also got a report from Jim Borrowman in Telegraph Cove saying that some orcas were entering Johnstone Strait through Weynton Passage. At 7.45 am we could hear resting calls from the A30s, probably the group from Weynton Passage, on the Cracroft Point hydrophone. Meanwhile the groups at Critical Point decided to go further east as we could hear them at around 8 am on the Rubbing Beach hydrophone and see them on camera in the Robson Bight Reserve, as well. At 9 am we could hear the A30s still on the Cracroft Point and also on the Parson Island hydrophone. About 3 hours later the orcas decided to finally come into Blackney Passage and in our sight at 12.30 pm. They were split into three groups, led by some of the A30s far side of the lab. The second group turned out to be some of the A30s, I4s and A25s. They all headed north at a steady pace. Just a few minutes later the third group, all of the A42s, entered Blackney Passage close to Gab’s Rock and along the Hanson Island shoreline. We could see them incredibly close to the lab deck and took some really nice ID photos of the family. When passing the lab the groups gave us a few calls on Local Left. After the three groups cleared into Blackfish Sound we could hear A30 and A5 calls on the Flower Island hydrophone. Just when we all turned our backs on the scopes the A42s suddenly decided to come back again for some last foraging in front of the lab mid channel before finally following the A30s, I4s and A25s into Blackfish Sound. Shortly before 15 pm we got a report that the whales in Blackfish Sound split up into two groups - one heading towards Pearce Islands and the other towards Weynton Passage. Half an hour later we got a report from the Ocean Magic saying that the orcas spread out around Stephensons and the bottom end of Weynton Passage, heading for Blinkhorn. We could hear their calls on the Critical Point and Cracroft Point hydrophone. At 4 pm some Orcas were reported to be seen at Big Bay, tight to the Vancouver Island shoreline. At 4.29 pm Megan and Shariana, who are staying at our outcamp at Cracroft Island, reported orcas heading into Blackney Passage mid strait. We spotted them shortly afterwards at 4:48pm on the Parson Island camera. The first group of them entered Blackney Passage at 4.53 pm: it was the A25s, A50s, A54s and I4s. They were traveling quite fast towards north and spread out into one large group covering Blackney Passage far side and mid channel. We got lucky to see lots of breaches, porpoising and tail slapping, especially from the juveniles and could record some nice vocalization on the lab hydrophone Local Left. The group had cleared Blackney Passage into Blackfish Sound by 5.11 pm and we began hearing calls in Blackfish Sound by 5.14 pm. During this time, we were wondering where the A42s went when suddenly they showed up at the south end of Blackney Passage! We were in for another treat watching them from the lab deck while they were quickly traveling north at mid channel, probably trying to catch up with their friends in Blackfish Sound. They were travelling close together and taking deep dives as they went through Blackney Passage. We couldn't hear calls until they had cleared into Blackfish Sound at 5.32 pm. The last call we heard on the Flower Island hydrophone was at 18.10 pm. At 19.33 pm Jared Towers reported to us that all northern residents that have been around today were off Blinkhorn after coming through Plumper Islands. We might have caught a glimpse of a call on the Critical Point hydrophone at around 19.40 pm but couldn’t hear more vocalization after that. Looks like the whales gave us a short break for dinner until we could start hearing them again on Critical Point at 21.30 pm. Here is hoping for an exciting night to come! Orcalab 25 Aug 2019 22:55:27 PDT

No orcas present. Summary of August 24th: We had a busy night here at OrcaLab last night, followed by a relatively quiet day in Blackney Pass. From 11:00 pm to 11:30 pm last night we heard calls and rubbing sounds on our Rubbing Beach hydrophone. As the orca traveled west, we were able to hear their chit-chat on our Robson Bight hydrophone until around 12:22 am. The calls became a bit masked by boat noise, but continued faintly. At 12:30 am, calls registered on both our Cracroft Point and Parson Island hydrophones, and the orca seemed to be headed into the Pass! As we listened for their blows outside the lab, there appeared to be two groups headed north fast through Blackney. The orca entered the pass at around 12:40 am and cleared quickly - exiting by 01:07 am! They vocalized the whole way, continuing their calls until they made it to our Flower Island hydrophone. Calls persisted until 02:00 am on the dot and the rest of the night was still. At 10:53 am, there was a group of Bigg’s that snuck up on us in Blackney pass. We are fairly certain that this group of three small fins and one male was the T060’s! They traveled north determinedly, and cleared the pass by 11:07 am. To spice things up, we began hearing I15, A30 and A5 calls on our Flower Island hydrophone at 11:33 pm. We had a report from Megan at 12:05 pm that there were orca spread from Hanson Island to Swanson Island at Double Bay heading east, with another group between Lizard Point and Donegal Head. It appeared that the A50s an I4s were in the lead, followed by the A54s and A25s with the A42s trailing. The Bigg’s were seen heading West at Stubb Island. We continued hearing resident calls off of Flower Island until 1:30 pm, and at 1:35 pm, we had another report from Megan that the orca had formed a resting line in Blackfish Sound and were heading towards Queen Charlotte Strait. At 4:15 pm, at least three Humpbacks began breaching, pec slapping and tail slapping in front of the lab - it was a beautiful sight! The rest of our afternoon and evening has been quiet so far. However, we just received a report from Kate that orca passed by Bere Point at 7:00 pm and, after a bit of back and fourth, are heading west towards Blackney Pass! We hope for another eventful night here at OrcaLab! Orcalab 24 Aug 2019 22:26:34 PDT

Distant calls audible. Summary for August 23 2019: A50s, A54s, A25s, A42s, I4s and humpbacks! Wow! What a busy day we had at OrcaLab! Not too long after we started hearing distant A30 and I15 calls in the Johnstone Strait at 10pm last night, we heard some distant A5 calls on Cracroft Point at 10:38pm. By 11:24pm, we had I15, A5 and A30 calls on Parson Island and immediately knew that some orcas might be headed north into Blackney! We first heard them in the pass at 11:30pm, counting at least six blows. They were split into two groups, both mid-channel, and traveled slowly through the Pass. There were no vocals and both travel groups had exited into Blackfish Sound by 11:47pm. We didn’t hear any vocals in Blackfish Sound, either, however at 11:51pm, we heard distant A30 calls in the Johnston Strait! We believe this group continued eastward, perhaps on the Cracroft Island side. At 12:47am, we heard very distant calls in the Johnstone Strait again, but this time it was the A5s. They continued to vocalize on and off for about forty minutes, until they eventually were drowned out by the heavy rain. Then, just before 2am, we heard possible echolocation on the Main Rubbing beach system. We continued to hear distant calls in the Johnstone Strait area until about 3:02am. At 5:15am, we heard A5 and A1 calls in Blackfish Sound and these continued for about 25 minutes. At 5:50am, we got a wonderful surprise when a humpback decided to sing for us!! It was beautiful as always and such a wonderful way to start the early morning. At 6:05am, we had distant calls in Blackfish Sound again and later at 6:29am, we heard calls in the Johnstone Strait. At 9:40am, we got a report from the Prince of Whales that the A42s were at Blinkhorn and traveling east! The rest of the morning was pretty quiet until 11:02am when we got a report from the Naiad that they were in Blackfish Sound with Orcas heading south, which meant…they were headed our way! The first group entered Blackney Pass mid-channel at 11:21am with A61 in the lead with the A50s. They were shortly followed by the I4s, A25s and finally the A54s. They were very playful (tail slapping and breaching) and took their time traveling south through the Pass, stopping many times to mill and forage. There were no vocalizations, but we did have Inkukshuk, one of our humpbacks amongst the orca! Once they had reached Cracroft Point, they were chatting away, clearly very excited about something. We thought we had seen the last of them for a while, but they turned right around and visited us again! We had A54s and the A25s enter the south end of Blackney Pass at 12:36pm and they quickly crossed the channel and were near Parson Island’s south edge by the time the I4s and A50s had entered at 12:37pm. They traveled slowly through the pass, staying in 2 separate groups until the very end, where they came together and foraged. A61 was with the first group, but around 12:50pm, he must’ve trailed behind and ended up following behind the second group. There were some vocalizations, but not many. Everyone had cleared the pass by 12:58pm. They continued into Blackfish Sound and there were excited vocals for about 40 minutes. We then got a report from Megan at 1:47pm that there were Orca 200 meters off of Telegraph Cove’s dock and faint calls on Cracroft Point. We started hearing distant calls in Blackfish Sound at 2:03pm. At 2:43pm, we got a very special surprise when the A42s came through Blackney Pass for the first time this season!!! They were traveling north and didn’t start vocalizing until they reached the northern end of the pass at 2:48pm. They finally exited into Blackfish Sound around 2:55pm. But wait…there’s more! To top off the afternoon, at 5:47pm, we had the A25s, A42s, A50s and I4s enter Blackney Pass from the north heading south, mid-channel. They didn’t vocalize until they exited Blackney around 6:06pm. Afterwards, they cleared into Johnstone Strait. Whew! What a life we live!  Orcalab 23 Aug 2019 22:57:50 PDT No calls but orcas nearby Like Emily said during our dinner, “today was full of highlights"! Starting at 2:55am we heard distant I15 and A30 calls in Blackfish Sound and soon afterwards the whales dropped into Blackney Pass. At around 3:40am, the “CP” camp let us know the orcas were headed east in Johnstone Strait along the Cracroft Island shore. That was also the time we heard the last calls on CP, echoing to the Critical Point hydrophone. About three hours later, the A30s joined by some of the A5s, went for a rub at the Main rubbing beach and then headed back west into Robson Bight where they became very chatty. They probably got some early breakfast since we could also hear a lot of echolocation. At around 10am, they decided to head further west making their way through Johnstone Strait close to the Vancouver Island shoreline to the area off the entrance to Blackney Pass (i.e. vocal on the CP hydrophone echoing into Parson Island). While the A54s and part of the A25s travelled north through Blackney Passage into Blackfish Sound, the A50s and the I4s were mid strait heading west in Johnstone Strait. The A50s and the I4s then doubled back toward the entrance to Blackney where, close to the Hanson Island shore, they followed the A54s and A25s through Blackney Passage. They surprised us by showing up just in front of the lab without any calls. They were grouped closely together. They cleared Blackney Pass very fast and joined the others in Blackfish Sound continuing west towards Donegal Head. We could hear their calls until 12:30pm and then lost track of them due to heavy boat noise and distance. As they continued west they met up with the A42s who had been travelling eastward in Queen Charlotte Strait all morning. This was the first time the A42s had been seen in the area this season!! The whales took their time sorting themselves out and by 4:30pm they had moved west to Bere Point. Then at 4:53pm, Kate Brauer reported the A42s, A25s, A50s, A54s and I4s had turned east once again from Bere Point. While the orcas spent their afternoon off Malcolm Island, humpbacks in front of the lab began trap feeding for nearly one hour, finally moving south to Cracroft Point where they foraged for another hour. That was our call to have some dinner as well. Jared Towers let us know that the orcas were southbound in Weynton Passage at 8:36 pm. At around 10pm we started hearing distant A30 and I15 call in Johnstone Strait as they headed east. We were sad to say good-bye to Momoko Kobayashi earlier in the day and wish her well on her travels back to Japan. Orcalab 23 Aug 2019 00:38:35 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby Yesterday was a busy day of Orca activity!! At around 7:58am we began hearing A30 calls in Johnstone Strait. It seems the Orca may have entered the Strait via Weynton Passage, and headed east from there. Then at 9:21am, we got a report from Farewell Harbour that a group of Bigg’s were in Blackfish Sound, and heading towards Blackney Pass. Quickly thereafter, the Bigg’s came into our view, and we were able to identify them as the T100s. At the same time there was a report of two other Bigg’s groups, one at Haddington Island (T55s) and another at Donegal Head. As T100s cleared Blackney Passage to the south, we received a report of Northern Residents in Robson Bight and were able to hear their faint vocalizations. At 12:10pm, with the help of Megan at CP, we were able to locate a group of 8 individuals on our Cracroft Point camera. This group was the A50s and I4s and they slowly meandered into Blackney Passage going north. As they entered the Pass, they were spread out, but once they approached the front of the lab they traveled in a tight group without vocalizing. As soon as we lost sight of this group on our Sea Lion Rock camera, we heard possible A54 and A25 calls on our Robson Bight hydrophone. We soon found them on the Critical Point camera and watched them for about an hour until they traveled west and we lost sight of them. To top off a wild day, we were pleasantly interrupted during our dessert by the TJ's sighting of fins in Parson bay, from inside the house! We believe that all of the A50s, I4s, A25s and A54s had united around Telegraph Cove and made their way east into the Pass. They were very quiet as they entered into Blackney, but began to vocalize as they came into range of our OrcaLab hydrophone at around 8:20pm. They were split into three groups headed north and all groups had exited the Pass by 9:02pm. They continued to vocalize in Blackfish Sound until 9:30 pm, as they continued further west. What a beautiful day at OrcaLab! Orcalab 22 Aug 2019 05:53:40 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby It was a very exciting day! The Orcas headed to the east after being in the Bight for most of the night and at noon, we got a report that they were heading west from the Broken Islands. At around 1:40pm, we found the Orca on our Rubbing Beach camera and at 2:34pm, we began hearing distant A30 calls on the hydrophone. Not too long after, we heard I15 and A30 calls on Critical Point. We found two groups just offshore, but they were hard to keep track of due to the windy conditions and we eventually lost sight of them. We didn’t hear calls for about 40 minutes, when finally calls were heard again at Cracroft Point! We found them foraging on the CP camera and they continued this behaviour for about an hour and a half before finally making their way west into Blackney Pass. We had three groups pass in front of the lab. The lead group, consisting of the A25s and A54s entered the pass at 6:08pm and were followed shortly by a second group with some of the A50s and I4s. Unfortunately, both groups were tailed by a commercial fishing boat, who decided to approach them at a very close distance so they could take pictures with their iPhones…sigh. At 6:30pm, the third group entered the pass with A75, her baby and the rest of the A50s. All of the Orcas were in high spirits, with lots of tail slapping and breaching! There were some, but not many, calls while they were traveling through the Pass. All groups had cleared by 6:41pm and continued on into Blackfish Sound where they are now occasionally vocalizing!  Emily and Momoko 20 Aug 2019 21:17:54 PDT

Distant calls audible. A lovely meeting of families! The A54s and the A25s finally came back from the east. They are meeting up with the A50s and the I4s who after travelling through Blackney Pass returned to Johnstone Strait via Weynton Pass and travelled east. The meeting is taking place off the western end of the Reserve just now. OrcaLab 19 Aug 2019 19:23:46 PDT No calls but orcas nearby Quite the morning! At 9:35am while checking the Main rubbing beach hydrophone there were distant A30 calls - just a few- enough for us to figure that the whales were on their way to west. By 10:22am the calls were now on the Robson Bight system but still not close. Twenty minutes later the Cliff informed us that the A50s were close to the Cracroft side under their observation site. Another group, also going west, was just offshore. Another hour went by during which the whales came into view of CP. At 11:42am the I4s and A72 were off CP. With quite a bit of milling/ foraging the whales turned into Blackney Pass and began to travel north with the last of the ebbing tide. They were in a hurry or perhaps carried along with the ebb. They made quick progress until just before Blackfish Sound where they stopped and collectively foraged. just before 1pm they were all in Blackfish Sound. After a few excellent calls (despite the boat noise) they continued to Bold Head. This is where we lost them so we are waiting for the next chapter which might include clues as to the whereabouts of the A54s and A25s! The T19s with T18 were in Queen Charlotte Strait this morning. OrcaLab 19 Aug 2019 14:31:19 PDT A lot can happen in twelve hours! The whales pretty much continued calling through the early hours of the morning in Johnstone Strait. Eventually it became clear that the whales had turned sometime between 11pm and 2:20am. At this time, some of the A30s came closer to the eastern portion of the Bight. By 3am there were whales off the Main rubbing beach. They became excited as the various groups came close as well. We heard rubs a couple of times and lots of close calls from the I4s, more A30s and then the A25s. The whales echo located almost continuously. This went on until around 4:30am when the calls became more distant as the whales moved off to the east. We last heard calls till about 5am. It is a beautiful sunny day here. No fog!!! Calm seas.  OrcaLab 19 Aug 2019 09:57:27 PDT

Distant calls audible. After passing Robson Bight very close to the eastern headland we heard calls on the rubbing beach at 6:42pm. The A30 calls became stronger, followed by echo location and the sound of rubs. One individual went very close over the under water camera. The rub was brief and the whales turned west just after and made another pass over the pebbles on their way in the opposite direction. We could see I76 offshore. He too was west bound. The whales seemed to mill off Strider, perhaps waiting for others to finish there and then resumed going west to Critical Point. By 7:29pm the whales were beginning to pass the eastern headland at Robson Bight. We watched and listened as they moved both offshore and deep into Robson Bight. The light failed us and so we have waited for their western progress to take them closer to Cracroft Point. We can now hear them on "CP" and have started another recording.other recording. www, orca-live.net OrcaLab 18 Aug 2019 21:23:48 PDT Orcas near mics. So despite the boat noise (sigh) the A30s and the I15s are calling on the Robson Bight hydrophone (www.orca-live.net). They are also on camera (http://explore.org/live-cams/player/orcalab-robson-bight) as they head east in the Reserve and Robson Bight. They have dolphins all around them. OrcaLab 18 Aug 2019 18:08:05 PDT Distant calls audible. It has been a very busy morning! We continued to hear calls on Critical Point until 6:25am, and at 6:33am, we heard distant calls on the rubbing beaches. We spotted a distant group in the reserve at 6:34am, and they were very generous with close calls and echolocation! Unfortunately, there was no rubbing action, they were too busy foraging off of the coast. There were quite a lot of whales and they split into two separate foraging groups at 7:24am. We believe they were the A54s and the A25s. They continued foraging and some dolphins joined them later on! One foraging groups eventually cleared to the east and the other turned around and headed west, back towards the rubbing beaches, but…still no rubbing. This group cleared to the west at 8:06am, towards Critical Point and showed up on the camera around 8:23am, exhibiting foraging behaviour. At this time, we also started hearing distant calls on the rubbing beaches again, probably that other foraging group that had cleared to the east earlier. At 8:51am, we heard distant I15 calls on Critical Point along with some A1 calls. They were pretty quiet, probably because they were far away, favouring the Vancouver Island side of the Strait and at 9:11am, we spotted a group on the Cracroft Point camera. They are there now, foraging and vocalizing!  Emily 18 Aug 2019 10:03:24 PDT Distant calls audible. They have been calling all night long! After travelling to the west from the reserve, the orcas turned to the east somewhere in the Strait. It sounded like they were off the entrance of Blackney Pass around 3am. We kept hearing A30 calls and occasional A5 and I15 calls. We believe that they are near Robson Bight now. Meanwhile we are enjoying the beautiful morning with two humpbacks in the Pass! Momoko 18 Aug 2019 06:08:23 PDT

Orcas near mics. At 9:16pm, We started hearing faint A50/I15 calls on Cracroft Point and at 10:18pm, We got a report from Megan and Shari at CP that there were at least 4 blows around the entrance to Blackney Pass and another 2, at least, to the East of the CP platform. The I15s were the first to become vocal on Parson Island at 9:51pm, followed later by the A50s at 10:01pm. We waited to hear blows outside the lab, but there was a big tug and barge traveling south through the Pass that made it nearly impossible to hear anything. The Orcas were vocal on Parson Island until about 10:10, which coincidently coincided with the tug entering that area. Right now, we believe they are in the strait heading West, but they are not vocal. We are continuing to listen, hoping to hear them in the Blackfish Sound area soon. At 10:54pm, we heard what was most likely the A54s and A25s on the Rubbing Beaches. They were incredibly close and vocal! We believe they came from the east, trailing far behind the A50s and I15s. We’re excited to see what the rest of the night has in store for us!  Emily 17 Aug 2019 23:15:34 PDT No calls but orcas nearby After the whales (the A30s, I4s and A25s) came around to Blackfish Sound from Johnstone Strait last night around 11pm they began to head east toward Blackney Pass. Had they found new companions. There were a lot of I15 and A5 calls later through the night making us wonder if something had changed in the composition of the groups. Time will tell! After midnight (12:27am) the first whales were in the Pass. They made steady progress to the junction of Blackney Pass and Johnstone Strait. They turned the corner by 1am and passed by Cracroft Point. The next stop was Robson Bight and just before 3am they were passing the eastern headland of the Bight closely and on their way through the rest of the Reserve. Forty minutes later there were calls at the Main Rubbing Beach - had they stalled for a rub at Strider? It was quite the recording at the beaches. Lots and lots of close calls as they enjoyed the beach. Gradually there was a shift and the whales continued east. The last calls we heard were just before 6am. Since then there have been reports of orcas off the Eve River at 8:20am heading east. Then at 9:45am orcas were reported at Stimpson Reef heading west. In the meantime CP and then the Lab watched Bigg's orcas pass by, they ended up in Blackfish Sound just a short while ago.  OrcaLab 17 Aug 2019 10:27:45 PDT

Distant calls audible. Indeed the whales have exited Johnstone Strait and turned up off Blackfish Sound. Orcalab 16 Aug 2019 22:58:55 PDT No calls but orcas nearby Our patience was rewarded after the whales cleared Robson Bight at 3:44pm. A61 together with A72 were amongst the last to head east. Initially, they passed Strider Beach (the Cliff was watching) and some headed to the Main Beach. No really rubs happened but A86 and her little one did a pass by and were seen under water as well at 4:03pm. Afterwards there was a good deal of back and forth offshore. Eventually, four went in for a real rub at Strider while others stayed offshore with some making all the way back to Robson Bight by 4:53pm. Several including the I4s were quite loud and vocal on reaching Robson Bight. By 5:53 all the whales were finally west bound. By 7:10 their calls were beginning to be audible on the Cracroft Point system. However, the whales kept pretty much to the Vancouver Island shore making it almost to Little Kaikash before turning back eastward at 8:40pm. Just after 9pm they were still in the Johnstone Strait area adjacent to Blackney Pass. With only distant calls over the next while it was hard to judge what these indecisive whales had decided to do - certainly not come into Blackney! Now, at 10:30pm the calls have ceased. Have they gone out through Weynton Pass? Orcalab 16 Aug 2019 22:32:49 PDT Superb sounds!! Well, it's been a busy day with two Orca encounters already! We started hearing Bigg’s calls on the Parson Island hydrophone at 7:09am and at 7:16am, we spotted a few on the Sea Lion Rock camera, heading north into Blackney Pass. They were foraging and we think they did a long dive, because we lost track of them and there were no vocals. To our surprise at 7:26am, we suddenly had (?)another group of 5-6 Biggs (1 male, 1 juvenile, 1 baby and 2-3 small fins) - possibly the T49As - come up in the middle of Parson Bay, this time traveling in a tight group against the tide heading south. A small coastal freighter actually turned off their engines, floated backwards, close to the whales, taking pictures! They resumed their travels after a while and the Bigg’s carried on to Johnstone Strait. This group did not vocalize either and exited the pass to the south around 8:04am. On entering Johnstone Strait the Bigg’s headed out toward midstrait. The Cliff then watched them progress to the east. At 9:39am we heard the Resident groups approach Blackfish Sound. It became apparent by the reports that they were committed to Blackfish Sound and Blackney Pass. At 12:23 the a50s,A54s,I4s and A25s were off Double Bay. We expected them to stay on the Hanson Island side as they were in a close group. The tide was in flood so we did not know exactly how quickly to expect them. About an hour later they were in our view surrounded by several boats, some of whom were travelling parallel, behind the whales, and even disappointingly close. The whales stayed in their close formation, at one point squeezed between a tug heading north and the large DFO boat the “Tanu” going south with them. The northwest wind was pretty exercised by this time and after the whales passed CP Megan had to put her camera away! The whales entered the Reserve at 3pm after rubbing at “Kaizumi” at 2:30pm. Now past Robson Bight (3;44pm) we are waiting hopefully to see them on the Main Rubbing Beach. Orcalab 16 Aug 2019 15:59:11 PDT No orcas present. At 9:50pm, we started hearing A30 calls from Blackfish Sound. Some of them came down half way in to Blackney Pass but turned back north. It was very difficult to hear their blows because of the wave sound. At 10:41pm, we picked up I15 calls. At 12:13am, we started hearing A5 calls. The orcas were very excited to meet up in Blackfish Sound. The last echolocation we heard was at 1:22am from Blackfish. Momoko and Emily 16 Aug 2019 02:17:55 PDT