No orcas present

No orcas present. August 12: A50s, A54s, A23s, A25s, Humpbacks: Argonaut, Squiggle, Quartz, PWD Today was all about splitting apart and coming together. Let’s start with the situation as it was at midnight. In Johnstone Strait, the A30s (both matrilines) moved away from the A23s who had decided to carry on to the east past the Ecological Reserve. The A30s, meanwhile, travelled up the Vancouver shore line to the west. They passed Kaizumi Beach quite closely. Their calls were very nice and close before they continued on their journey. They elected not to come into Blackney Pass but headed to Weynton Pass instead. Quin heard their brief and distant calls as they came out of Weynton Pass to Blackfish Sound at 2 am. As the A30s and the A23s kept going in their different directions the area covered by our hydrophones fell silent of orca calls. However, a humpback stepped in to fill the void at 4:19am. For nearly an hour this humpback sang into the wide expanse of Blackfish Sound. This is early for humpback “song” as usually the onset of more social interactions later in the year usually gets them going. As it was fairly distant it was haunting and somewhat ethereal sitting in the Lab tuning into this far off voice. The rest of the early morning was uneventful. The sunrise was beautiful. And the morning was busy. Megan at “CP” (Cracroft Point) let us know that the T02Cs were headed into Blackney Pass from Johnstone Strait at 11:06am. They travelled fairly steadily north in mid channel. They seemed fairly focused and not distracted. They cleared our view by 11:44am. At 1:05pm we heard from Alex Morton that there was a large group of orcas headed east in Blackfish Sound. By 1:27pm the A50s and the A54s were south bound in Blackney Pass. It was gratifying to see several of the orcas suddenly break away from their travel to pursue a hunt for salmon. They did so in silence which always provokes the question, “how?” As they approached the last leg of the Pass they finally began to call. We had learned by then that there were other orcas still in Blackfish Sound. By the time the A30s were just about in Johnstone Strait we saw A61 followed by A85 and her little baby come into view from Blackfish Sound following the same path as the A30s before. The A25s had gone out with the A4s the previous day and here they were back with the A30s. Had the A30s purposely gone out to fetch them back? The A25s managed to reach the Strait around 3pm. A85 and her little one were surrounded the whole time by Pacific White-sided dolphins. The dolphins have been accompanying the orcas most days recently. By now the A30s had crossed over to the Vancouver Island shore and had passed Kaizumi Beach. They approached Robson Bight by 4pm just as the A23s were coming west from the eastern end of the Reserve. Another get-together in the works! The A23s made straightforward work of their travel west. By 4:11pm they had reached Strider Beach (A60 clearly visible) and were on their way from there by 4:41pm. There must have been some degree of sorting out as the groups got closer together. The upshot was that after the next couple of hours they decided to head back to the west together. Megan saw them at 7:20pm. They were quite spread out, most were westbound, although she mentioned that some were foraging as well. Just after 8pm (8:07pm) we heard very clear A5 calls in the entrance to Blackney Pass. These calls continued for the next 8 minutes and then A61 came into our view. The strong A5 calls continued past 8:20pm. A61 turned at 8:24pm and went back the way he had come. More orcas by this time were committed to coming into Blackney Pass. Had A61 been beckoning the others to hurry up? He and his A25 group reentered and travelled north. The A23s did likewise. The scene with the orcas moving through at the same time as the sunset was a lovely ending to the day. By 9:15pm A61 had gone into Blackfish Sound. A60 and the A23s were not far behind but they did hesitate just before leaving. We became aware of a group still near Parson Island. Instead of following the others they turned and went back to the Strait. It was getting dark by now and very hard to see but we think this may have been the A50s. As the A5s got fully into Blackfish Sound they made a few calls. A short while later, the group that went back to the Strait made the exact same shared calls. And that was it. The A25s had rejoined the A23s and it seemed like the A30s organised the whole thing!  Helena 12 Aug 2020 23:51:20 PDT Superb sounds!! A23s rubbing at Strider! https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base OrcaLab 12 Aug 2020 16:29:31 PDT