Summary for November 17 2019 T68,T68A, part of T68Bs After yesterday’s stormy weather, today was a pretty calm day on both the sea and the hydrophones. In the early morning light, a harbour seal was slowly waking up on the rocks by our main beach. We saw one humpback blow close to Parson Island at 9am but there was no whale to be seen later in Blackney Pass. Claire sat down with Janie for an intense instagram lesson while Jérémie and Mike (from Double Bay) went to change the battery of our Local Left hydrophone. About 25 sea lions were hauled out on the Hanson Island rocks, 10 were at Parson Island light and 24 were on the Parson Island rocks near Second Bay. At 9:30am we had a report from Jared Towers that orcas were spotted off the Pearse Islands, travelling east. They were Bigg’s orcas, identified as T068, T068A and some of the T068Bs when Jared saw them later at 11am in Johnstone Strait off Kaikash Creek favouring the Vancouver Island side. They continued east and did not visit Blackney Pass. Janie left Hanson Island around midday and the team is now reduced down to Claire and Jérémie who are hoping to meet Janie again and talk more about these amazing giants of the sea who she has been studying up north for many years. At 3pm, we went to Parson Island Rock to check the fuel cell levels and returned by 4pm. Half an hour later, Jared Towers indicated that T068 and others were westbound off the southeast end of Cormorant Island still close the Vancouver Island side. The light came down as early as 5pm. We can feel the days getting shorter now but are really hoping that the whales will continue to visit Blackney Pass a little longer! The night sky was clear and full of stars and Jérémie took a lovely snap of the moonrise behind Harbledown Island at 9:37pm while our hydrophones remained silent for the rest of the night.  OrcaLab 18 Nov 2019 23:15:01 PST