Summary for November 10 2019 A34s, Humpbacks - Bumpy, Ridge, Moonstar, Backsplash Today started as early as 3am with a vocal humpback on our local hydrophone in Blackney Pass. For the most part, his song was unfortunately covered by the loud noise of boat travelling north in the Pass. At 4:30am, there were still humpback sounds in Blackney Pass and we heard Pacific White-sided dolphins too. The A34s started to call in Johnstone Strait on our Cracroft Point hydrophone at 6am. At the same time, we heard the dolphins again and a humpback in Blackney Pass for about 10 minutes. Another humpback was briefly vocal in Blackfish Sound around 6:38am. We spotted the Pacific White-sided dolphins travelling in front of the Lab and heading south at 8:40am. It was a foggy morning in Johnstone Strait and we could not locate the orcas on our remote Cracroft Point camera but they were still calling, more or less distant. After about half an hour of silence, we heard them close to our hydrophone in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve between 9:08am and 9:12am. We believe they continued east to the Rubbing Beaches, clearing the range of our hydrophone before coming back around 10:09am. They were close to our hydrophone in the Reserve at 10:29am when we heard echolocation sounds and loud calls. The fog had disappeared by then in the Strait and we were able to see four fins foraging just outside the Reserve on our remote camera at 10:49am. They slowly made their way west up Johnstone Strait and we spotted a fin on our Cracroft Point camera at 11:51am. They were close and vocal on our Cracroft Point hydrophone at 11:57am, soon echoing to our Parson Island hydrophone covering the entrance of Blackney Pass. At 12:23pm, we heard independant calls on the Parson Island hydrophone and were expecting them to travel north into the Pass. But they didn’t. The humpbacks Ridge, Bumpy, Backsplash and Moonstar were spotted in Blackney Pass though. We had been gifted with some of the most amazing trap feeding activity since 10:30am, including Moonstar feeding very close to the Hanson Island shore, just south of the lab at 12:52pm! We were able to capture all these incredible moments on our local camera that transmitted the footage live on explore.org for some lucky viewers! The Northern Residents continued to call in Johnstone Strait for a bit and we heard them last at 1:24pm. Later in the afternoon, a humpback made a few sounds on our hydrophone in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. We did not hear a sound after 3:26pm.  OrcaLab 11 Nov 2019 20:25:12 PST Summary for November 9 2019 A34s, Bigg’s?, Humpbacks - Claw, Moonstar, Backsplash, Inukshuk, Ridge, Squiggle, ?Domino What a night! After hearing 4 humpbacks sing yesterday evening, we heard 4 others during today’s early hours. The first one started at 12:42am in Johnstone Strait and performed for about an hour. He was followed by a second one at 2:46am in Blackney Pass singing simultaneously with another humpback in the Robson Bight. That one then continued on his own. His calls produced an amazing natural reverberation and continued until 4:09am. We briefly heard the A34s in Johnstone Strait at 5:06am and then again at 6:26am when a fourth humpback started to make squeaky sounds on our local hydrophone! The Northern Residents continued to be vocal on our Cracroft Point hydrophone until 7:39am. By 8:30am, 5 humpbacks were feeding in Blackney Pass at the entrance of White Beach Pass and we identified Claw, Moonstar, Backsplash, Inukshuk and Ridge! 5 out of 5! Yey! At 10am, the A34s resumed on our Cracroft Point hydrophone and we spotted 2 black fins on our remote camera halfway between Cracroft Point and Kaikash Creek on Vancouver Island. They were vocal for most of the day in Johnstone Strait. We watched them head west, favouring the Vancouver Island side. They were just tiny dots on our screen at 10:56am when we lost track of them but we could still hear their calls. They were distant and sporadic with a few excited ones around 12:45pm. The humpback named Claw came close to the lab at 1:35pm and we watched her, Backsplash, Inukshuk and possibly Domino, feeding frenzy in Blackney Pass at 1:41pm. Ten minutes later, the A34s calls became louder on our Cracroft Point hydrophone. As Claire was looking for them on our remote camera, she saw Dall’s porpoises close to the Cracroft Point platform. A black fin, possibly a sprouter, appeared mid strait at 2:24pm in line with Kaikash Creek. He was foraging on his own and we could hear him making N3 calls on our hydrophone. TJ, one of our summer assistants was also looking at the Cracroft Point camera on explore.org a few minutes later and notified us of a small fin heading into Blackney Pass. We all kept our eyes open, scanning the horizon from the lab deck, waiting for them to come in! But at 2:56pm, we spotted 5 fins on the Cracroft Point camera, spread out, in Johnstone Strait towards Telegraph Cove. If anyone came into Blackney, they remained invisible and silent on our local hydrophone! The A34s continued to call sporadically in Johnstone Strait until 3:16pm. From 3:18pm until 3:58pm we heard different calls on our Cracroft Point hydrophone, presumably Bigg’s calls. It wasn’t long before we heard the A34s again for a short time on that same hydrophone: at 5:11pm, they made a few N4s and A12 special calls before going silent except for sporadic N3 calls here and there until 6:33pm. For the past half hour, a humpback was singing a lovely melody composed of whistles, barks, cracks and high pitched violin sounds on our local hydrophone. When he paused, we could hear blows outside, mid channel in line with Harbledown Island. His last notes were at 7pm as we all gathered for a lovely dinner made by chef Megan.  OrcaLab 11 Nov 2019 20:20:41 PST Orcas near mics. There are very excited calls at the moment on our Cracroft Point hydrophone, tune in!  Claire 11 Nov 2019 13:03:01 PST Distant calls audible. A34s calls are in Johnstone Strait on our hydrophone from Cracroft Point with some faint echo on the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. Jeremie 11 Nov 2019 10:47:01 PST Superb sounds!! Humpback whale vocalizations on our local hydrophone. Jeremie 11 Nov 2019 03:37:54 PST