Summary for November 4 2019 A34s, Humpbacks Domino, Slash Sometimes we feel like the whales know our routine life on the island and today they decided to give a special farewell to Quin and Suzie their own way. Those two were on watch for their last night before heading to Alert Bay early in the morning and a first series of N4 calls occurred at 1:02 am. When Suzie went to the lab to record, the orcas became silent. The second time, Quinn woke up and heard some calls again which, by the time he pressed the record button, stopped once again at 2:08 am. The night was quiet after that and we had time to load the boat with Megan, assigned to do the regular town run, and to say bon voyage to Quinn and Suzie. The whale activity started again at 10:48 am, first with distant calls on the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve hydrophone. We could distinguish N4 calls from the A34s coming closer while in the meantime, a group of 3 humpback whales were milling in front of the lab, on Harbledown Island coast, one of them being Slash. We believe the orcas were coming from the east of the Bight, cruising slowly through Johnstone Strait where we could see them on our Cracroft Point camera at 12:56 am. At least 3 fins were milling mid channel between Hanson Island shore and west of Kaikash Creek. After following them on camera for a while, we lost their sight by 1:53 pm but could still hear their calls. Matchu came by to grab Jérémie and have a look at Parson Rock camera system for some maintenance, the perfect opportunity to give Jérémie another boat driving lesson. In the lab, at 2:18 pm, Claire had a show for herself, from one of the numerous humpback whales foraging and milling into Blackney Pass. This unknown humpback was tail slapping in the theatrical scenery of Parson Bay. Jérémie and Matchu came back from Parson Island on a “mission accomplished” mood and a few minutes later, Megan arrived back from Alert Bay at 2:32 pm. She confirmed the A34s spread out into Johnstone Strait between Hanson Island and Blinkhorn, and also spotted the Humpback called Domino, close to the Wastell Islets foraging and heading west. We could still hear the A34s on Cracroft Point hydrophone and before having the orcas back on cam at 3:57 pm, Claire could see a few Dall’s porpoises in line with Kaikash Creek, fairly rare at this time of the year ! The orcas were further east in the Strait now but we barely saw the blurry shape of a big fin (adult orca or sprouter) and some smaller ones at 3:50 pm. The orcas kept on easting for the rest of the afternoon and by the beginning of the evening at 6:41 pm, we could hear them clearly on our hydrophone in the Robson Bight Reserve. A nice Humpback whale recital started to rise on Cracroft Point hydrophone at 6:55pm and the whole whale show ended up for the day at 8:53 pm. The whales are keeping us busy all day long here but we still had the time to accomplish some important missions. And while we ended up the day by celebrating Lucas arrival and eating the bread and stuffed pumpkin cooked by Jérémie, we were wondering what surprise the whales will keep for us tomorrow.   Orcalab 05 Nov 2019 22:23:55 PST Distant calls audible. The A34s are back on our hydrophone in Johnstone Strait! Tune in and let's hope they'll come closer :) Claire 05 Nov 2019 11:03:43 PST