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