September 11 2020 [A23, A25s eastern Johnstone Strait], T060s (minus T060 D & E) with addition of T060G (baby) and T002B, Humpback (vocal),Sea Lions hauled out on Hanson I For three plus hours (from approximately 12:35 to 3:30 am) we were treated to a very beautiful acoustic humpback experience. Not sure why the nighttime seems to stimulate the humpbacks into voice but so very often this is when they let go and fill the ocean with their sounds. The humpback we listened to probably started somewhere in Blackney Pass while moving toward Blackfish Sound. It was in Blackfish Sound and near the hydrophone that his voice was the most sustained. It never felt throughout this session that this humpback was “singing”, it was more like “speak”, each vocal clear, detached, separate and measured. No one here slept, everyone listened. Ironically, as I write there is a humpback (maybe the same one?), in Blackfish Sound, doing a repeat performance! (It is almost 10pm). Hopefully, this humpback will not be interrupted by boat noise too soon as what happened during the early morning’s session. A repeated pattern of boat noise increasing starting from 3:13am subdued the humpback in Blackfish Sound into periodic silences until eventually by 3:48am he quit altogether. Then a rare daytime occurrence. For a short while, a humpback, again in Blackfish Sound, made sounds that lasted (off and on) from 10:02am to 10:39am. The activity amongst these humpbacks is definitely changing, giving us the sense that their social scene will become more important as the season progresses into late summer and fall. At 11:22am we received a report from Lance Barrett-Lennard that Bigg’s orcas were eastbound in Blackfish Sound. This would be, as Marieke informed us, the T060s. They were without T060 D & E but had with them baby T060G and T002B. So 5 in all. They came into our view already opposite mid Compton Island at 11:27am. A long,deep dive confounded us. When they resurfaced they had turned north but almost in the same position. It was now 11:40am. Eight minutes later they turned south again and this time proceeded through the Pass toward Johnstone Strait. They passed, without apparent interest many sea lions in the water. These sea lions were not impressed but a group near the end of Hanson Island grouped tightly together, stretched their necks and looked all too aware of the passing orcas. It was just after Noon when the whales disappeared from our view. We learned later that this was when the A23s and A25s were near Rock Bay in eastern Johnstone Strait near Chatham Point. They would go into Nodales Channel from there, last reported near Sonora Point. The Bigg’s orcas, meanwhile, from 12:22 to 1pm, travelled more or less east in the Strait while angling over toward Kaizumi Beach and then on to the Bight afterwards. They made no calls during their whole passage. At 2:35pm we noticed a small group of sea lions had hauled out on the Hanson Island shore. Last year, they began to haul out, this being one of their winter haul-outs, on September 9. What calendar do they go by? We have come to expect them to use these rocks along the shore to the south of the Lab for the next several months. At times their numbers may swell to 200+ if the past is any measure. They will now be featured on www.explore.org Sadly, today was Gloria’s and Pippa’s last full day. They will leave in the morning, head to Alert Bay and then go their own separate ways; Gloria to Montreal where she will spend the winter at the family cottage, and Pippa (and Moss the puppy) to a planned road trip tour of parts of British Columbia and then back to Nanaimo. It has been a pleasure to have them both here at the Lab, cheerful, helpful, competent and willing. We will miss them. We have heard from Quin who left yesterday that he has arrived safely in Port Renfrew where he is aboard his (and Suzie’s) new sailboat, the Orion. I think, while he bunks down, is listening to the humpback in Blackfish - the habit of listening to whales is apparently hard to break! OrcaLab 11 Sep 2020 22:54:08 PDT Superb sounds!! Once again, beautiful humpback sounds in Blackfish Sound. OrcaLab 11 Sep 2020 21:49:18 PDT Sea lions hauled out on Sea Lion rock! Follow along with us here: https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Gloria 11 Sep 2020 14:39:13 PDT September 10 2020: A23s, A25s, Humpbacks: Argonaut, Corporal Let's start right where we left off last night: the A5s left Kaizumi Rubbing Beach silently, and we were unsure where they moved onto next. Well, our day started right away with some answers when we heard the orcas rubbing at Strider Rubbing beach at 2:13am. They must have slowly made their way east. They quickly passed at Strider Rubbing Beach, and off they went, staying quiet for the rest of the night, perhaps now out of range. But it didn't stay silent for too long; a humpback began calling near Flower Island at 02:54am. Through grunts, calls, and some silence, this whale called for four hours, slowly moving into Blackfish Sound. That's right, four beautiful hours of humpback calls in the moonlight and into the sunrise! The A5s returned to Kaizumi Rubbing Beach at 9:23am, with some atypical calls. No rubbing this time; they simply passed by and kept going. Calling mid-Johnstone Strait intermittently, the calls were getting fainter and fainter through our Critical Point hydrophone until the whales fell silent again. It was now 11:57am. And then out of the blue, Meg heard echolocation near Flower Island at 12:27pm! Maybe the A5s? Possibly they had gone out Weynton Pass and come around to Blackfish Sound. By 12:58pm,thanks to Lance Barrett-Lennard, we got the full picture of what was going on. The A23s were at Egeria Shoal, north of Blackfish Sound and into Queen Charlotte Strait, at 1:50pm. As the A5s were north of us, we watched two humpbacks, Argonaut and Corporal, traveling and milling through Blackney Pass. We also said goodbye to Quin, who, after nearly a year at Orcalab, is now off on his next big and exciting adventure. Thank you for all the love and hard work you’ve brought to this place! Things were quiet for a while until Helena thought she saw orcas mid-channel at the top end of Blackfish Sound, along with one or two humpbacks. It was now 5:26pm. And she was right! Twenty minutes later, Megan rushed over with excitement, "Orcas heading south into Blackney Pass!" Thank you, Andrew Jennings! As we're all peering through the north edge of Blackney Pass, waiting for the fins to appear, A61's big curved fin surprised us in the middle of Blackney Pass. The A23s were in the lead, followed by the A25s. The two tight-knit groups then came together, swimming fin to fin. One boat sped over to the whales and stopped right next to them. The sports boat kept waiting for the orcas to come up for air, and then move closer to them, creating a storm of loud boat noise each time. The whales went into a deep dive; this looked like a change in behavior caused by the boat approaching them once again. The whales (and boat) exited Blackney Pass not long after, and a humpback closed off the passing with a breach mid-channel. We watched the orcas pass through the entrance of Blackney Pass, Megan on the camera controls and waited for them to show up on the Cracroft Point remote camera. A large group of Dall’s Porpoise had gathered in the entranceway too. Now, just after 6pm, we saw the A23s come into view on the Cracroft camera. They were not far offshore and began to travel east and still together. As we followed them A60 finally came into view just on the “inside” of the others. As he caught up to the rest of his family he breached and tail slapped. Just as the entire group began to angle towards Vancouver Island we caught a glimpse of the following A25s in the corner of our camera “eye”. After a few moments of vacillation the whales continued toward the Vancouver Island side. It was now 6:40pm. They made it over to Kaizumi Rubbing beach by 6:57pm, echolocating, sometimes loudly, and repeating one same call. They didn't rub, though we wondered if maybe they were foraging with the loud clicks coming through our headphones. We kept listening to them slowly continuing to the east of Johnstone Strait. By 7:50pm they were in the Bight and onto Strider Rubbing Beach for a short evening rub. They powered on through to the east, past Main Rubbing Beach, and out of our range for the night. And that was it for today, a busy, beautiful day that felt like summer again. Days like this never get old. Nighttime was ahead and a huge, amazing treat but that will have to wait for the next summary! Hint: it was not about orcas. OrcaLab 11 Sep 2020 08:52:46 PDT September 10 2020: A23s, A25s, humpbacks Let's start right where we left off last night: the A25s left Kaizumi Rubbing Beach silently, and we were unsure where they moved onto next. Well, our day started right away with some answers when we heard the orcas rubbing at Strider Rubbing beach at 2:13am. They must have slowly made their way east. They quickly passed at Strider Rubbing Beach, and off they went, staying quiet for the rest of the night. But it didn't stay silent for too long; a humpback began calling near Flower Island at 02:54am. Through grunts, calls, and some silence, this whale called for four hours, slowly moving into Blackfish Sound. That's right, four beautiful hours of humpback calls in the moonlight and into the sunrise! The A25s returned to Kaizumi Rubbing Beach at 9:23am, with some atypical calls. No rubbing this time; they simply passed by and kept on going east. Calling mid-Johnstone Strait intermittently, the calls were getting fainter and fainter through our Critical Point hydrophone until the whales fell silent again. It was now 11:57am. And then out of the blue, Meg heard echolocation near Flower Island at 12:27pm! Who were these whales? Maybe the A23s? As no orcas made their way through Blackney Pass, and the calls only got fainter and fainter, it's safe to say the whales were north of Blackfish Sound. By 12:58pm, they were no longer in our range, but thanks to Lance, we could get the full picture of what was going on. The A23s were at Egeria Shoal, north of Blackfish Sound and into Queen Charlotte Strait, at 1:50pm. As the A23s were north of us, and the A25s potentially somewhere in Johnstone Strait, we watched two humpbacks, Argonaut and Corporal, traveling and milling through Blackney Pass. We also said goodbye to Quin, who, after nearly a year at Orcalab, is now off on his next big and exciting adventure. Thanks for all the love and hard work you’ve brought to this place! Things were quiet for a while until Helena thought she saw orcas mid-channel at the top end of Blackfish Sound, along with one or two humpbacks. It was now 5:26pm. And she was right! Twenty minutes later, Megan rushed over with excitement, "Orcas heading south into Blackney Pass!" Thank you, Andrew Jennings! As we're all peering through the north edge of Blackney Pass, waiting for the fins to appear, A61's big curved fin surprised us in the middle of Blackney Pass. The A23s were in the lead, followed by the A25s. The A25s must have turned back west earlier and passed through Weynton Passage to meet the A23s. The two tight-knit groups then came together, swimming fin to fin. One boat sped over to the whales and stopped right next to them. The sports boat kept waiting for the orcas to come up for air, and then move closer to them, creating a storm of loud boat noise each time. The whales went into a deep dive; this looked like a change in behavior caused by the boat approaching them once again. The whales (and boat) exited Blackney Pass not long after, and a humpback closed off the passing with a breach mid-channel. It was now 6:06pm. From our Cracroft Point camera, we saw A60 breach and tail slap, and then the group headed west towards Vancouver Island. Two minutes later, the whales had a change of heart: they were headed east again. It sure seems to be the theme of the day! It was now 6:40pm. They made it to Kaizumi Rubbing beach by 6:57pm and lingered there for thirty minutes, echolocating loudly and repeating one same call. They didn't rub, though we wondered if maybe they were foraging with the loud clicks coming through our headphones. We kept listening to them slowly, continuing to the east of Johnstone Strait and into Strider Rubbing Beach for a short evening rub. They powered on through the east, past Main Rubbing Beach, and out of our range for the night. And that was it for today, a busy, beautiful day that felt like summer again. Days like this never get old. Gloria 11 Sep 2020 02:58:44 PDT