Summary for September 14 2019: I4s, I16s, I27s?, I65s Getting it together! Yesterday the I15 groups in Johnstone Strait were so difficult to track. The weather conditions were lousy (although rain is always welcome) for watching whales and the orcas were so quiet for long periods of time. We did hear them between 11:31pm and 11:47pm when they were off the entrance to Blackney Pass probably nearer to the Vancouver Island shore and most likely heading east once again. We need to offer a correction. The I15 groups yesterday (September 13) were reported to be the I4s and the I65s but this was later (after the summary was posted) corrected to be the I16s and the I4s. This contributed to continued confusion today. All was pretty quiet from midnight till morning. The humpbacks began moving into Blackney mid morning. Again there were several at a time in the Pass and they were fairly active foraging. At 11:41am (12 hours after we heard the last I15 calls) there was a report of Northern Residents heading west off Stimpson Reef east of West Cracroft Island. This would turn out to be the I16s and the I4s when they were identified later after reaching the area off the Adams River at 1:45pm around the same time other orcas were spotted heading east from Donegal Head. These orcas would turn out to be the I65s with possibly the I27s. An hour passed before the I65s (and I27s) were about to enter Johnstone Strait from Weynton Island. We heard their calls a few minutes later at 4:53pm. It was not clear to everyone which whales were actually in the Strait and to add to the confusion the groups from the east (the I16s and the I4s) were getting closer to those coming from the west. As we only heard I15 calls (except for the few dolphin calls off the Main rubbing beach at 3:11pm) we were not convinced that there were any other groups present other than I15 families. We spent a lot of time trying to sort out the various reports, what we were hearing, and what we were watching on the remote cameras. By 4pm, the coming together of the entire I15s was well underway off the Izumi Rock area. By 4:20pm, the whales were all westbound now but quite spread out. Between 5:33pm and 5:48pm the majority had passed Cracroft Point and the entrance to Blackney Pass. The last group headed west with dolphins in tow closer to the Hanson Island shore just before 6pm. They were headed for Weynton Pass but now all together as a family once again. A humpback somewhere off Parson Island began to warm up vocally for the night ahead just after 6pm and as the I15s came around Hanson Island to Blackfish Sound at 7:31pm another, or perhaps the same, humpback chimed in with the orca and dolphin calls. There were a few more faint I15 calls at 8pm. Other happenings around the Lab. We had a changing of the guard at “CP”. Megan and Shari traded places with Alicia and Suzie in the afternoon. Suzie saw a sea otter just off the CP platform at 6:22pm. This and the orcas going by was certainly a nice start to their stay at the camp. Quin stayed on today and spent most of his time in the Lab, hearing for the first time orcas in real time! The sea lions really seemed to settle on to the local rocks today. Never fails to impress how they make rocks look so comfortable. The humpbacks were equally impressive lunge and trap feeding, rolling with dolphins, breaching and just simply being.  OrcaLab 14 Sep 2019 22:45:38 PDT