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No orcas present.
May 21 - Jun 22 2022 Bigg’s: T002B, T011A, T018, T019s, T034s, T036, T036Bs, T037s, T049A2, T055s, T060s, T063, T065, T071Bs, T100s, T123s, T124Ds, T127s Humpbacks: Guardian, Argonaut, Inukshuk, Stitch & more How the time flies! The last month has seemingly disappeared and we find ourselves close to the anticipated arrival of the Northern Residents. We have several projects underway and are busy setting up for the summer ahead. On May 31, Suzie and Quin returned to Hanson, with Megan arriving a few days later. Helena and Paul, who had been on Hanson most of April and throughout May, then took off for a couple weeks. This marks Megan’s twelfth summer here, Suzie’s sixth and Quin’s fourth. On June 22, we welcomed Helena and Freddie - our first summer volunteers - to Hanson Island. This month, we have undergone many technical upgrades to improve our ever-expanding network and each day has seen a hive of activity from dawn to dusk. Quin, in partnership with explore.org, has taken our off-grid systems under his wing and has rebuilt many of our back-end electronics and upgraded our solar capacity so that they might survive the winter. With the help of Jeff Chamberland and Iskra Zafirovska, three of our sites have had an entirely new solar array installed. One of those being Strider - our all-important rubbing beach setup - which picked a fight with a January storm and lost, quite spectacularly. The power of the elements is no joke around here! Megan, Suzie and dear friend Mike Durban have been busy preparing and installing our four underwater cameras and seasonal surface cameras spread between the rubbing beaches, Flower Island and Cracroft Point. If that weren’t enough, we have also been hosting Tom Dakin, Jeff Bosma and Joel Mellish from Sea-to-Shore Systems for a week. In a much appreciated and with tremendous effort, they have serviced and upgraded our network of digital hydrophones that were installed in 2020 as part of the BC Coastwide Hydrophone Network (BCCHN). But what of the whale world? We know that the A42s and A64s found each other and spent time in Squally Channel on May 31 - June 1. The R13s were also seen by the Fin Island crew. We are thrilled that the humpbacks are around in Blackney Pass most days, and have already seen some familiar flukes on the horizon: most notably Guardian, Inukshuk, and Argonaut. We have had a few sporadic passings of Bigg’s orca. On June 2 there was a large exodus from mid-Vancouver Island area, and several families of Bigg’s cruised up Johnstone Strait. The T034s and T037s came by the lab quickly, porpoising through quite close to the lab. Meanwhile, T049A2, T063, T065, T071Bs, T100s, T123s, T124Ds, and T127s stuck to the Strait and we heard lovely vocalizations as they passed Kaizumi. All went west. Many thanks to Jared for the IDs. We saw T036 and the T036Bs pass the lab on June 6th, and have had many reports of Bigg’s in the area since. T011A has been sighted fairly frequently, along with the T055s, T060s and T002B making the rounds, too. The latest reported sighting was June 17 of the T109Bs, T018 and T019s heading west in Cormorant Channel - thank you Scotty. A notable change since the past two years is the return of cruise ships through Blackney Pass. It is not uncommon to see three or four cruise ships in quick succession, then watch the same ships return a few days later. While a return to this “normality” might be seen as positive to some - as the world opens up and COVID-19 poses less of a threat - we can only speculate as to the effects this might have on the whales. Perhaps they will adjust quickly to the return of this huge sonic impedance, or perhaps we will see significant changes in their patterns and behavior. Now the time is really ticking until the historic arrival of the Northern Residents. We are excited to have you join us once more for the summer.
Suzie, OL
22 Jun 2022 21:18:09 PDT |
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