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No orcas present.
Today was so special! Not just because the sperm whale returned this morning but because of all the great effort made by several people to document this event. It started around 7am this morning when Lisa Larsson began a recording of the clicks off Robson Bight. An hour and half later, the sounds we echoing to the Cracroft Point hydrophone so pretty sure the whale was westbound. Lisa let Jared know and he got ready to head out with the intention of picking up Lisa on the way to assist. Helena and Paul monitored the the hydrophones and cameras from Alert Bay. Jared and Lisa put a hydrophone in the water off CP and could hear clicks. But the sperm whale (who can dive from 30 -45 minutes) proved elusive and no one could locate him. Jared decided to head east and made it to Naka Creek around 11am. Still no luck but, in the meantime, Alex (who was also on the look out in case the whale went through the passes) spotted southbound orcas heading towards Weynton Pass and mentioned that there were calls on the Flower Island hydrophone before they disappeared into the pass. Jared was alerted and he decided to come back towards the west. By 12pm, they were back off CP listening. At 12:36pm we could see blows to the west on the CP camera and at 12:42pm Jared texted that they had found both the orcas and the sperm whale off Blinkhorn. During this, Elizabeth Zwamborn, who is studying whales in Nova Scotia was offering helpful information about sperm whale behaviours and acoustics as the day unfolded. Around 1pm, the clicks became quite frequent and sometimes loud despite the distance. Jared stayed with the sperm whale and got pictures. Then at 12:48pm he went off to identify most of the T137s who were continuing east. An hour later, leaving the orcas off Kaikash, Jared and Lisa went back to the west to try to locate the sperm whale. As the clicks continued they found him/her just before 2pm. At 2:18pm the whale fluked off of the Wastell Islands. By 3pm, the sperm whale was headed east mid strait off Big Bay. Being extremely patient with no whale in sight, Jared positioned himself off Cracroft Point and waited. The clicks continued and so Jared asked to be informed when the clicks stopped for 3+ minutes when he might expect the whale to surface again. Right on cue, the sperm whale surfaced at 3:27pm not far from Jared and blew repeatedly until fluking and diving out of sight. We have not seen him/her again but there is some daylight left. It was an intense but satisfying day (and maybe not over yet!)
OrcaLab
12 Feb 2018 19:12:59 PST |
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