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July 27 2022 Orcas: A50s, A54s(heard), A35s/ A56 (heard), A73s, A42s (heard) I35s, I68s Humpbacks: Stitch, Argonaut, Insomnia Pacific White-sided dolphin Minke: Eclipse Starting this summary one needs to imagine sitting in our Lab at midnight earphones on, listening, very dark outside. Serene but not quiet. Far away near the eastern end of the Ecological Reserve under a clear starry night and in calm waters were the Northern Resident orcas who had been present all day. Here they had paused somewhere between Strider and Main beaches. Their conversation was intense at times especially when nearer the hydrophones and they strongly echo located, pounding the ocean with their heavy precise clicks. So close at time and yet they did not rub. They were not alone. Dolphins were not too far away and then a humpback around 12:30am happened by and made his presence known. This was quite startling. As the orcas made several heavy click trains the humpback punctuated them with whups, grunts and swirling water. He was close! Neither the humpback or the orcas seemed willing to give ground to the other. This was reminiscent of long ago in 1993 when Offshore orcas once ventured into Blackney Pass at the same time as the A30s. The A30s after following the quickly retreating Offshores into Blackfish Sound, returned promptly to Blackney and pounded out the same type of heavy echolocation for several minutes. Of course it is very possible something else was going on. The humpback calmed down eventually but still the orcas stayed in the same vicinity for several hours more. Finally just before 5am (remember this all began before midnight) the I35s and or the I68s went for a five minute rub at Main. A little while later the As performed a three minute rub at Strider after which there was a succession of rubs: 5:16am (44 minutes) at Main, 5:41am (less than a minute) at Strider, 5:45am (less than a minute) at Kaizumi, 6:08am (twelve minutes) at Main, 6:29am (eight minutes) at Main and finally 6:46am (ten minutes) at Main once more. It took a while longer but groups were actually on the move to the west if ever so gradually. By 9:46am the Cliff camp saw orcas coming out of Robson Bight (had they rested there after all the nighttime activity?) and a small group of five close to the Cracroft Island shore heading west. From Noon on we attempted to track the not very vocal whales on both shores with the remote cameras. At 12:1pm several passed Kaizumi. First seen going east! Soon they shifted back to the west showing some indecision or at least some hesitancy on their part. This may have been the A23s. By 12:30pm these orcas were angling over to the Cracroft side where other orcas, including Bend from the A50s, were already milling. A group could be seen continuing west along the Hanson Island shore. There was so much going on! Later we were to learn from Jared that the I35s and I68s went west ÒoutÓ Cormorant Channel by 4pm. Before that at 1:19pm faint echolocation, which became quite strong, was heard at Main beach. It was a bit of a surprise to realise that the orcas were still so very spread out throughout the Strait. A rub followed this echolocation at 1:20pm. There were no definite calls to help with identification and as mentioned before we do not have a surface camera there this year so we were a bit handicapped. We suspect the A54s as we heard A30 calls later at 4pm further west near Kaizumi beach knowing that the rest of the A30s were still on the Cracroft Island shore. Things became a little clearer when the groups began to collect and vocalize more intently off the entrance to Blackney Pass around 4:30pm. The A50s, A54s, A23s and A73s then went north through Blackney Pass between 4:38pm and 5:05pm. We followed them west on the Flower Island remote until 5:25pm. A little over an hour later they were back. But the current was against them and they didnÕt try too hard to fight it. Getting partially into Blackney Pass they turned back to the north a 6:47pm They had been favouring the Hanson Island side when they came in and once back in Blackfish they continued along this shore. By 8pm the glare from the setting sun was pretty bad and we lost them. Dolphins who had been following the orcas chatted for a bit at 7:45pm as a nice postscript to a pretty complete, busy day. We were left wondering what happened to the A35s and the A42s? Did they leave to the east after that midnight rendezvous off of the rubbing beaches? Was that what all the fuss was about? Or did they manage to slip off to the west like the I35s and I68s? We are going to have to just wait and see.
OrcaLab
28 Jul 2022 08:27:06 PDT |
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