August 31 2020: A30s, A25s, C10s,C06s, D01s, T18, T19s, T121A and other Bigg’s, Humpbacks, Pacific Whitesided Dolphins, Dallas Porpoise AND another jet-ski incident Even though the early morning hours were pretty quiet, and although a humpback called between 3:56am and 4:05am while in Blackney Pass, the promise of orcas was still in our minds. There had been lots of discussion the previous evening about the movements of the Cs and Ds in Discovery Passage. Would they try to make it back? How long would it take to come all that distance? And it was known that the A30s had been travelling east in the Strait late in the evening. Were they going to meet the Cs and Ds? How far would they have to go? And what about the I15s and A5s heard for a while in Blackfish Sound? Were they trying to make their way into Johnstone Strait ? After many uneventful hours Jenn began to hear orca calls in Johnstone Strait. She surmised correctly that the whales were still at some distance from the Ecological Reserve. At first she heard the A30s. The faint calls continued for a long time. At 9:36am, the I15s and A5s revealed that they were there too. A minute later, the long awaited C/D calls began. Meanwhile, the Cliff caught sight of 6 orcas just west of Kaizumi Beach on the Vancouver Island shore. Goodness how did they fit in the picture? Kaizumi is west of the Reserve nowhere close to where we thought the Resident orcas should be. The mystery was solved when it was learned that this was a group of Bigg’s orcas moving to their own drum and not involved with the parade of Northern Resident orcas that was about to come on scene. A couple of the whale watch boats followed the Bigg’s west. We alerted Jim Borrowman to see if he could keep an eye out for the Bigg’s as they were travelling west close to shore. If they kept this up it was anticipated that they would eventually pass Telegraph Cove where Jim was working on his house. Sure enough they passed by and Jim just had enough time to take a few pictures of these Bigg’s. He thought one picture clearly showed T121A and possibly her young one. Before 10am we had distant glimpses of orcas mid strait east of the Reserve on the remote cameras. At 10:07am we saw a male and others head east (!) toward the Main Rubbing Beach. Thinking back on this we later wondered if this was part of the I15s or A5s coming from the west to intercept the westbound orcas? Not long after we began to notice westbound whales coming closer to the Main Beach. Soon others were on the Strider camera as well. Strider Beach is west of the Main Beach. The scene began to unfold very quickly from there. Orca after orca passed by, some coming close enough for a quick perfunctory rub but the majority remained focused on travelling. Of note, we did catch a glimpse of A61 as he passed. This was helpful as it told us which A5 group(s) we had been hearing. The orcas were quite chatty and there was a nice mix of A30, C and D calls especially. The orcas advanced toward Robson Bight. An advance party of dolphins showed up first off Critical Point, the eastern headland of the Bight. They skitted west, then back east, then west again ahead of the arrival of the first orcas. Whales passed close to the shore. We heard A30s, Cs and A5s. Then at 11:10am a small group passed, paused to forage and made definite sounds of crunching tasty fish. Megan identified C13. They mosied on into the Bight still foraging. The Bight looked beautiful, calm and bathed in deepened colours cast by the shadow of the tall mountains above. The day had begun quite foggy, especially near the Lab and at one point we featured the impressive swirling rising mists and low puffy clouds near Kaikash Creek. At 11:45 am the “Cliff” research group informed us that they had counted 28 whales between Critical Point and the Western Boundary. As the whales continued west, spread out in their various groups, the research vessel the Steller Quest came on scene west of Kaizumi Beach. We had already begun to hear closer calls on the Kaizumi Beach hydrophone as the whales approached this site. The A30s actually sounded excited. We were treated to some very nice calls. So lovely to hear the Cs and Ds after such a long absence. The Cs and Ds are part of the same clan as the A30s and as such share many of the same call types. But there are dramatic differences and understanding that these families possess different dialects was never clearer. In the mix of calls there were incredible high pitched whistles sustained for quite a while. Whales at their most intimate! Whistles are one of the three types of sounds orcas can make. The others are, their discrete pulsed calls that form their dialects, and their echo location clicks used to navigate and find food. One hears the whistles only when the orcas are fairly close to a hydrophone. The I15s soon reminded us that they were still there and the C10s produced some lovely calls between 12:07 and 12:15pm. We kept track of how the whales were moving via the remote Cracroft Point camera. We had to zoom in quite far as the whales were still hugging the Vancouver Island shore as they travelled west. The Steller Quest was keeping up with the whales and in their attempts to tag individual whales they were often close as well. A low flying plane flew directly overhead at one point. Disturbing. It would not be the only disturbing occurrence of the day. Of course we hoped the whales would cross Johnstone Strait and come into Blackney Pass. Instead they angled over but carried on west mid strait favouring the Hanson Island shore once they were past the rip currents off the entrance of Blackney Pass. For their movements after this we relied on reports from those closer to the scene. The Cs and Ds carried on west with the A30s, I15s and A5s. They went into Pearse Passage where, perhaps, exhausted by their long journey, they rested. The A30s, however, went through Weynton Passage. The sleepy Cs,Ds and others would go on to Mitchell Bay, Malcolm Island. Later, after they woke up from their sojourn around 7pm they turned and headed out to Queen Charlotte Strait. By this time, we unfortunately witnessed yet another intrusion by the same jet-skis! This was the third day in a row. At 3pm, they turned up in Blackney Pass, coming from Blackfish Sound. We later learned that they had been seen near the Northern Residents in the Strait. They stayed the better part of 40 minutes in Blackney Pass darting around at speed, idling near a humpback near Compton Island. Enough was enough! The report of the first incident had been filed with the Incident Reporting Line. They had indicated that someone would be in touch in the next couple of days. The problem was this was happening right now and it was a repeated offense. We needed help. We called the RCMP who came out from Port McNeil and located the jet-skiers after their departure through White Beach Pass after 4pm. They issued a warning and told them to stay 200 meters away from marine mammals. We believe this may be helpful with regard to these individuals, however, we are still concerned about all those “selfies” taken while they were joyriding among the dolphins, sea lions, humpbacks and yes, even perhaps the orcas. Who will see those? Will others follow? More work needs to be done. Hopefully, the DFO will pick up the baton from here. We gave them another call. Meanwhile, Northern Residents were not the only orcas to grab our attention. We have already mentioned the Bigg’s earlier in the Strait but there were other groups of Bigg’s as well. At 4:26pm, just as we were recovering from documenting the jet-skiers, a group of 8 Bigg’s came into view on the Blackfish Sound side of the Pass. They never fully came into the Pass as something kept their attention in that area. They looked to be quietly foraging, not overly dramatically but persistently nevertheless. The many sea lions way over by Parson Light became quite attentive, stretching their necks and looking around. Several Dall’s Porpoises shifted to our side and the few seals who had been swimming around disappeared. Coincidence? Maybe but we noted these changes in behaviour all the same. As though this day was not complicated enough there were other events,which as evening neared, were revealed to us. We heard Bigg’s calling briefly at 5:15pm. The group of Bigg’s we had been watching were still in view. Then we heard that a different group, the T19s (with T18) who were at the Plumpers (not far from Blackfish) apparently became vocal too at 5:20pm. The group in Blackney had not yet departed by 6:50pm but by then the fog had begun to descend and it became difficult to see. Jackie Hildering (from the Marine Research and Education Society) later told us that, as she was conducting a humpback feeding survey, she and her colleague, Chloe, noticed a very young orca porpoising east in Cormorant Channel at 7:15pm. Cormorant Channel is between Alert Bay and Malcolm Island . Jackie believes she saw the same juvenile with two others in Cormorant at 6:05pm. Unusual to see such a young whale on their own. Andrew Jenning (AJ) mentioned to Jackie that he had noticed that a young whale had broken off from the T19s while they were at the Stephenson Islands and was headed in Jackie’s direction, then near the Pearse Islands. The photos will be studied early tomorrow and compared with the excellent Bigg’s ID catalogue to see if this mystery can be fully unravelled. To top the day, Boat Bay reported yet another group of Bigg’s in Johnstone Strait. They were headed west past their camp at 6:46pm. Gloria found them by looking on the remote Critical Point camera. They were still going west toward Cracroft Point. Kory at the Sophia Islands east of Cracroft Point clocked them there at 7pm. Gloria saw them again using the Cracroft Point camera heading west quickly at 7:20pm. So many of these events were happening within the same hour or so: the Northern Residents had decided to move on to Queen Charlotte Strait; the little whale was trying to get back to where he/she belonged; the whales in Blackney were still shuffling around; and even more Bigg’s were present in Johnstone Strait. Whew!! One final note (promise) the camp at Boat Bay heard a fairly large group of orca heading east at 10:07pm. Bigg’s or Residents? Anyone’s guess. OrcaLab 01 Sep 2020 00:27:36 PDT No orcas present. We have orca moving south through Blackney Pass. We are not currently hearing any calls. Follow them live with Explore.org https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab  31 Aug 2020 16:37:19 PDT Multiple pod calls audible. So after a relatively quiet night this morning has certainly kicked it up a notch. We are currently hearing calls from multiple groups of whales. By the sounds of it we are hearing the return of some of the Cs and Ds that spent most of their day yesterday south east near Campbell River! We have also heard calls from the A30's, I15's and A5's. At present we are trying to decipher the location and direction of all of these groups using our camera network, with quite the foggy morning its a challenge for sure! Ohh and there is a group of Bigg's in the area as well! A lot going on thats for sure! Follow online live on explore.org https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab  31 Aug 2020 10:22:20 PDT