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August 26 2022 Orcas: A50s, A54s, A23s, T011A Humpbacks: Claw and baby, Stitch, Guardian, Ridge, Squiggle, Inukshuk, Quartz, Tag, Domino Pacific White-sided dolphins, Dallas Porpoise Sea Lions hauled out on Parson Light Rocks The A50s are good at dropping few hints, keeping us guessing as to what they might be doing and where. A test of sorts for us. Some nights it feels like we are connecting disjointed dots in our attempts to try to understand the movement of these orcas. Not compelled to always vocalise, they are adept at finding their way through the waterways of this area and the rest of the coast as well with remarkable ease. Just imagine!. The early hours of this day offered little. We had been thinking that the A50s were westbound at the end of the previous day. But then the boat noise grew intense and the calls dropped off. At 1am there were a few calls and some echolocation off Cracroft Point followed by whistles and more echololation off the entrance to Blackney Pass. This lasted until 2:18am. This echolocation was the only indication that the A50s might have turned into Blackney Pass and headed northwest to Blackfish Sound. This impression was backed up later in the morning from a report of the A50s off Egeria Shoals heading to Bold Head at 8:45am. Our attention had already been peaked by a report from the Cliff that T011A, a Bigg’s orca, had been identified and was headed toward Cracroft Point. At 9:31am T011A, also known as Rainy, was approaching the CP camp very close to the Cracroft Island shore. He was in our view ten minutes later. He smartly moved along silently until he reached White beach Pass where he turned momentarily before carrying on and clearing the Pass just after 10am. The A50s were clearly eastbound in Blackfish Sound at the same time. At some point they must have passed Rainy who was seen travelling west near to both humpbacks and Pacific White-sided dolphins. Interesting company for a Bigg’s oreca!. A humpback, perhaps one of the two nearby Rainy, gave a brief sound. Rainy wasted no time getting into Queen Charlotte Strait where he was seen headed toward Lizard Point Before the A50s made it to Blackney Pass another report from the day before confirmed our suspicion that the A23s and the A54s had gone east. They had been found in Nodales Channel, a favourite haunt off the eastern end of Johnstone Strait. Just before noon the A50s came into view. They were favouring mid channel and moving all together in a relaxed but steady way until they cleared out of sight at 12:12pm. Five minutes later they were in Johnstone Strait. The strong northwest wind was blowing as hard there as it had been in Blackfish Sound. The strong winds promised by multiple forecasts finally materialised. Pretty dramatic especially combined with the strong currents usually happening in the entrance of Blackney Pass. Not a worry for the orcas but these conditions had almost dire consequences later in the day. The current as the A50s turned east was flooding at a maximum rate of 4.2 knots. While the A50s had current and wind to encourage them, the A23s and A54s, on their way back to the eastern end of the Ecological Reserve must have had a much harder time. Just before 1pm we began to hear their calls as they slowly approached Main Rubbing beach. As their calls got stronger and stronger as they got closer and closer to Main the A50s had achieved Kaizumi beach to the west of them. They must have sensed just how close they were to coming back together because at 1:08pm the A23s, in particular, burst into excited calls. The A54s followed suit a short while later. The remote camera at Strider caught sight of west bound whales off shore of Strider. And still there were excited calls at Main indicating how spread the groups were. At 1:22pm a rub started at both Main and Strider at the same time! A60, Fife, was identified in the waves at Strider. The rub at Main ended at 1:30pm and a minute later so did the one at Strider. Everybody went west pushing through the northwest swells in the direction of Robson Bight They reached Critical Point (Robson Bight) at 1:50pm. From there they moved to Kaizumi beach where at 2:57pm a few made a brief rub. By 3pm orcas were arriving off Cracroft Point. Quite the journey, especially for the A23s and A54s. They would not get help from the currents until 5:30pm when an almost equally strong ebb would begin. Despite this the groups carried on to the west, perhaps wisely avoiding the still flooding current coming out from Blackney Pass. By the time they reached Weynton, probably sometime after 5pm, they were better positioned to eventually take advantage of the favourable currents into Weynton Pass. But it was still over three hours before we heard the orcas on the “other side” in Blackfish Sound. The A23s seemed to arrive first and were followed by the A30s. There were a lot of calls and echolocation which only got louder. They seemed to be coming east toward Blackney Pass. Unfortunately, the wind and the waves were too heavy and it was impossible to hear blows. One single call on the Local Centre hydrophone confirmed that someone had made it to Blackney Pass. It was now 10pm. It would be another half hour before other calls occurred in the entrance to Blackney Pass confirmed passage to Johnstone Strait. However, only A30 calls were heard. What of the others? Had they come as silent partners or had they merely crossed Blackfish and departed to Queen Charlotte Strait? Not enough information! Once in Johnstone Strait the whales settled on the rather generic calls and a bit of echolocation before becoming mute by 10:48pm. Then nothing more past midnight. It was rather amusing that when the orcas reached Johnstone Strait a humpback accompanied their calls with his own repertoire, grumblings and whups. Earlier, just before dark, and before the orcas made it to Blackney, the humpbacks known as Inukshuk and Quartz had come close to the Lab breaching and pec slapping. They weren’t feeding, just playful in the windy waves. They parted in opposite directions with Inukshuk moving south, Quartz north. Did Inukshuk become the interesting vocalist off Cracroft Point? The above list of the many humpbacks shows just how busy and well attended the Pass is throughout the day. Glance around and everywhere are the tall plumes of breaths shooting skyward, suspended momentarily, then dissipating after capture by the wind. We mentioned the heavy winds off Cracroft Point. Mid afternoon a group of kayakers found themselves in trouble in the strong currents and wind. One kayak flipped over and its occupant was tossed into the water. Megan, Shari and Momoko were watching and Megan immediately called in a MayDay over the VFH. Coast Guard 508 responded as did Farewell Harbour. Both arrived on scene within fifteen minutes. The situation was resolved, all the kayakers got safely to shore and although the woman had swallowed water she was declared okay by the medic on board the Coast Guard boat. This was after Megan and Momoko had brought over warm clothes and a hot drink. The Coast Guard then accompanied them safely to a place where they could camp overnight and requested that they would not go out again the next day as the winds were still forecast to be as heavy. The kayakers were all very grateful to everyone who had helped. Megan was commended for her handling of the MayDay. On a very different front, the Lab volunteers who wished to go (a few stayed behind) went off in the late afternoon to enjoy the annual Boat Bay party hosted by the Cliff crew and Wardens. The northwester had one very positive attribute - the skies were clear, the stars came out shining, no fog was looming!
OrcaLab
27 Aug 2022 07:47:13 PDT |
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