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September 13 2022 Orcas: T018, T019s, T124As,T124C Humpbacks: Merge, Hunter, Guardian We picked up the distant calls of a humpback on Parson Island at 12:49am. He called intermittently in the same location on and off throughout the early morning hours, occasionally sustaining his effort for brief moments. He was never close to the hydrophone. At 5:31am, the Flower Island registered distant calls shortly after a few last calls on the Parson Island hydrophone. It was as if this individual had been in Blackney Pass the whole time, at first favouring the south side then moving closer to Blackfish Sound in the end. It was all over by 5:33am. We noticed a lot of “feed” showing on the spectrogram, probably schools of fish. Distinct bubbles were heard at 4:31am so we imagined this whale had lots of opportunity to feed. It would be a theme throughout the day. Every humpback we saw in Blackney Pass was busily engaged in feeding throughout the day. Telltale signs of seabirds hovering over the surface often preceded great amounts of splashing, twisting and turning of the feeding humpbacks below. The many, many sea lions, yet to really begin their haul-out on the local rocks, were busy looking for food as well. The large group of Pacific White-sided dolphins, who rushed west in Johnstone Strait and into Blackney Pass, seemed on the other hand to have other concerns. No time to stop or even pause. They were first seen at 12:47pm by Claire and Jerémié while at the “CP” camp at Cracroft Point. Ten minutes later they turned into Blackney Pass where they rushed past the Lab on the farside of mid channel. The remote camera at Flower Island followed these speedy creatures as they flew by and carried on to the west in a flurry of splashes and bits of chatter that lasted until 1:50pm. Less than an hour later Bigg’s orcas turned up off of the Sophia Islands, just as the dolphins had two hours before. But instead of coming into Blackney Pass the Bigg’s orcas continued west past CP followed by eight whale watching boats! The T019s with T018 were closest to CP as they passed. The T124As , along with T124C, were mid-strait. By 3:15pm they were in the riptide currents to the west of CP. Fifteen minutes later they were across and heading “up” the Strait to the west. The humpbacks, Merge and Guardian, who had paired up earlier, were foraging in the same rip a short while later. The Bigg’s were still in the Strait at 4:30pm but by then closer to the Stephanson Islands. They were still there an hour later when Paul and Megan were returning from town. Before being drowned out by boat noise more dolphin chatter was heard in the Strait just after 5pm for forty minutes. Bigg’s orcas also became vocal from 6:30pm to 6:44pm before their calls disappeared into additional boat noise. Jared Towers commented that T019C was vocal while off Alert Bay at 6:50pm. We don’t know the details of of the movements of the Bigg’s orcas and the dolphins but it is likely they converged at some point, the dolphins from the direction of Blackfish Sound and the Bigg’s from Johnstone Strait. Were the Bigg’s the reason for the dolphin rush earlier and was it their fate to meet anyway? A large fog bank threatened to engulf Blackfish Sound all afternoon. The Strait was pretty clear but later more fog blanketed the area. So enveloped, day gave way to a much less eventful night.
OrcaLab
14 Sep 2022 09:30:15 PDT |
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