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