No calls but orcas nearby A thoroughly exciting afternoon here at the lab. Quin first spotted the orca around Parsons light at approximately 14:15. Suzie and Megan both headed to the lab to start a recording and to find them on the cameras. The whales were rather too far away for us to identify immediately, although we knew they were Bigg's due to the more pointy shape to their fins. We counted 7 whales in total. 5 small fins, a baby and a larger male that Quin felt looked familiar to the male T075A we had seen a few days previous. After an encounter spanning over an hour and half with the whales changing direction multiple times we wondered if they were looking for food but not successful. They finally cleared from our view heading north into Blackfish Sound at 15:35. Thanks to Jared Towers for coming out and helping us piece together who these whales were. He confirmed it was in fact the two whales we had seen two days ago T075 and her son T075A, accompanied by T023C and her family of three offspring. Surprisingly T023, T023C's mother, was also present which is unusual as she usually spends her time with another of her offspring: T023D and her family. Meanwhile, humpbacks Guardian and one other unidentified whale were doing some incredible acrobatics at Cracroft Point, we counted at least three double breaches! It really feels like the spring is passing over into summer with what turned out to be quite the busy afternoon including that signature north westerly wind. Orcalab 26 May 2020 20:31:04 PDT No calls but orcas nearby We have a group of Orca heading north in Blackney Pass right now. Watch live at Explore. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 26 May 2020 14:18:17 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby Here at the lab we had an exciting morning. After a full day of rain yesterday we awoke to a growing south east wind and grey skies. Things were quiet until we heard Quin shout "ORCA". T075 and her son T075A passed by the lab heading south in Blackney Pass at 11:13am. Quin first spotted them from the guest house and we all gathered on the deck to follow them as they passed by close to the lab. They cleared from our view at 11:27am heading towards the Johnstone Strait. Jared Towers and Ely Durand were already out on the water awaiting their arrival at the south entrance of Blackney Pass. The whales headed east close by Cracroft Point and down towards the Baron Reefs likely in search of the seals that frequent the rocks during these low tides. Jared and Ely followed them as the continued east and left the pair heading past the Sophia's towards the West Cracrfot shoreline at around 12:15pm. Jared and Ely stopped by for a brief boat to shore chat but with the wind picking up didn't stop for long. He told us that these whales, T075 and T075A are usually seen in the waters off the southern end of Vancouver Island and also up in Alaska and that this is his first time he has ever seen this pair traveling in the Johnstone Strait. He assumed they usually use the west coast of Vancouver Island to transit between the two areas. We feel very lucky that we were able to witness them pass by the lab so close this morning.  Orcalab 24 May 2020 13:02:18 PDT We just had a passing of orcas right in front of the lab! No calls. Orcalab 24 May 2020 11:19:55 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby We have a group of Orca heading north in Backney Pass. No calls yet. A large group with at least three males! A very foggy morning but watch live on Orclaab base cam.https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab  17 May 2020 08:53:09 PDT

It now appears we have three Humpbacks and some dolphins in Blackney Pass heading south. Jigger, Twister and one other. Scroll back on Base cam and also Sealion rock to see some of the action! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab  13 May 2020 14:23:23 PDT More humpbacks! Jigger and Twister were seen this morning around 8:25am, heading south in Blackney Passage. We were a little unsure of their ID's but we have just seen them yet again heading north into Blackfish Sound. They gave us a lovely view of their flukes and dorsals which we could match to this morning's viewing. So wonderful to have the humpbacks returning. Many thanks to Jackie Hildering for the confirmation of their IDs, and to all the work of MERS for documenting these wonderful whales back in the summer feeding grounds. Orcalab  13 May 2020 14:22:23 PDT

We are watching a Humpback close to shore on the sea lion camera. We haven't managed to identify the whale yet but tune in live here at:https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-steller-sea-lion-haulout Suze, Megan and Quin  11 May 2020 10:23:55 PDT

Performing maintenance Live audio streaming is back! Many thanks to all involved in resolving the issue, Momoko Kobayashi, Seiji Inagaki, Jérémie and Quin. OrcaLab 10 May 2020 12:03:24 PDT

Maintenance: We are currently experiencing some issues with our live stream. Please bear with us whilst we try and troubleshoot these problems and try and get things up and running again, THANKS!  Orcalab 08 May 2020 15:50:03 PDT