No orcas present. July 21 2020 Orcas: A50s and A54s (fairly confident no 75s) Wow - are we glad we have the new camera at Strider Rubbing Beach! What an afternoon. But first, let’s backtrack a little. Following a quiet night, we all woke feeling well-rested and ready for the day. A first in what feels like forever! Quin and Megan made a plan to head to some of our remote stations and work on some radio links. They disappeared into the fog at 11am, leaving Paul, Helena and Suzie alone at the lab. Their work involved a large amount of tree-climbing on Quin’s part, and they arrived back about 7 hours later totally exhausted but pleased with a successful day of tinkering. Good job you two! Just before their departure, we started hearing A1 calls in Blackfish Sound at 10:06am. It took them quite a while, but they gradually made their way south and into our view - except our view was obscured in fog! Just as the fog began to dissipate, Suzie caught sight of the orcas right out front, already half way through at 11:30am. She noted that the calls were A30s but these did not look like the A50s, who we have become so accustomed to in recent days… it was the A54s! It has been about two weeks since we saw them, so this was a treat. We noted the absence of the A75s (a sub-matriline of the 54s) and we believe that they were not around all day. We started hearing A54 calls as they cleared into the Johnstone Strait, giving us a really nice recording of them as a separate matriline to the A50s. And so, the acoustic work begins… We were still hearing A30 calls in Blackfish Sound and - sure enough - at 11:57am the A50s came past the lab, also heading south. A84, A50 and her new baby were really nice and close, it was a lovely passing. All orcas headed into the Strait, and started to make their way east towards the Ecological Reserve. We lost their calls for a bit. We left the lab around 1:30pm and did some other tasks, keeping an ear on the hydrophones. Suzie heard loud calls at 2:24pm, and assumed they must have made it to Robson Bight. Wrong! They had totally bypassed the Bight and headed straight for the rubbing beaches. She loaded Strider rubbing camera and - goodness gracious - so many fins in view! Both the A50s and A54s were cruising up and down that short stretch of beach, grazing their bodies along the smooth pebbles. We have never seen anything quite like it (but we expect much more to come this summer!). They rubbed for about 40 minutes and we got some incredible footage of this unique spectacle. They headed west again shortly after 3pm, and we continued to hear faint calls in the Strait again. At 4.20pm, we actually heard loud calls still around Robson Bight ,suggesting the the whales were spread out with some hanging back as the rest headed west. Shortly afterwards, at 4:34pm, we also heard faint calls off Cracroft Point and Parson Island, indicating that some orcas had made it west to the Cracroft Point range. The two groups continued to be very spread out in the Strait! We believe the leading group continued to forage and mill around the entrance to Blackney Pass for an hour, probably waiting for the tailing group who were still heading west from the Bight. We thought that all were heading west in Johnstone Strait as we had saw them cross the entrance to Blackney Pass mid strait. But at 5:32pm we heard loud calls on Parson Island - they were coming into view again, this time heading north! The A54s came in first, spread out closer to the Parson Island shore. Not long after, the A50s also came into view. They were closer to Hanson Island and ended up clearing our view first around 6pm. The 54s were very spread out as they passed, but we heard echolocation and saw them foraging for a good while - always a promising sight. Still did not find the A75s (Cedar and her two young ones). We monitored their lovely calls as they passed our Flower Island hydrophone, and tracked them north in Blackfish Sound until 7pm when we last heard them. We are very fond of these two matrilines as they have been the first to arrive and stay in the area for many years now and although their movements are far from predictable; we certainly always expect the beginnings of summer to feature the A30s! We hope you enjoyed the footage at Strider if you tuned in with us - we will share a short clip in a little while for those who missed it.  Suzie 21 Jul 2020 21:04:15 PDT