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And now for today!!! What a day! Well done everyone at the Lab. Summary for November 2nd 2019 Residents: A34s Biggs: T099b, T037A, T049A1 (ID’d by Jared from our photos. At least 13 individuals in total.) Humpbacks: Domino, Backsplash, Slash, Moonstar, Claw What a BIGG day we’ve had! Excuse the pun. Safe to say, we are all fairly exhausted but exhilarated. The day started early, as we had A34 calls from 11.30pm the night before. They sounded very clear on Critical Point in Johnstone Strait, and became equally clear off Cracroft Point by 12:21am, suggesting they were moving west. We last heard them faintly off both hydrophones just before 2am, when they fell silent or moved out of our range. At 5.40am the silence was pierced with a very loud, grunting humpback in Johnstone Strait. He was joined shortly after by the A34s, who were once more calling in Robson Bight. They were very faint and echoey, and were joined by another humpback singing right in front of the lab at 6:49am. The orcas slowly moved west, and we picked them up off Cracroft Point again at 8:05am. Our view was totally clouded in a thick fog, but at 9:10am we heard something which surprised us - A34 calls on our local hydrophone and still off Cracroft Point! The A34s had temporarily split up… we listened for blows outside the lab in the fog, and could hear three or four blows which definitely sounded like orca blows - but it was difficult to make out over the grunt of the sea lions. We tracked the blows moving past us to the north, and we heard a brief round of calls in Blackfish Sound at 9:37am - as well as calls still off Cracroft Point, hence the impression that the A34s had split. At this point, the fog made it difficult to tell whether this group of whales headed round Hanson and into Johnstone Strait through Weynton Passage, or turned back through Blackney, but they definitely rejoined their kin in the Strait later in the day. More on that in a little while… The A34 calls off Critical Point remained sporadic and fairly distant all morning. At 12:39pm we received a report from Matchu at Double Bay that there was a group of orcas in Blackfish Sound heading south - our way. He reported one large male and a few smaller fins. Thanks to this report, we were able to get ourselves ready for what followed! At 12:52pm Suzie spotted the first fins in Blackney, mid-channel travelling south. We had prepared ourselves for residents, A34s travelling back past the Lab… but we were wrong - it was Bigg’s! A large group of predominantly small fins (i.e. no big males) were tearing past us in a tight-knit group. We estimated there were 8 or 9 together, with one small baby. They surfaced a few times before taking deep dives, whilst the sea lions huddled together in solidarity along the Hanson Island shore. Thanks to Jared Towers, we’ve confirmed T099B and T037A were amongst these individuals. At 1pm, we spotted the group that Matchu had reported with its big male and four small fins, travelling further over in the channel, also headed south - they were Bigg’s too! We believe the male was T049A1 and the group had two babies or very young individuals. For the next four hours we watched the two Bigg’s groups predating on sea lions, breaching, interacting with humpbacks and vocalizing right in front of the Lab. As if that wasn’t enough excitement, at 1:38pm we saw yet another group of orcas enter Blackney Pass from the Strait, heading north. The A34s! Both halves had clearly joined back up in the Strait by this time and they made their way past us very quickly, clearing into Blackfish Sound at 1:57pm. They didn’t interact with the Biggs, but at 1:45 we had Bigg’s calls quickly followed by A34 calls. What a wonderful melange of visual and acoustic treats! Both groups of Bigg’s changed directions many times, and from 2:39pm to 3:38pm we could hear their faint, sporadic calls but did not have a visual. We wondered if they were taking long dives or were very far over by Parson’s Bay or White Beach Pass just out of sight. We eventually caught sight of the larger group of 8 or 9 (with the baby) at 3:38pm, and tracked them as they headed determinedly south in Blackney Pass, clearing our view at 4:15pm - but not before they gave some more sea lions a good scare. At 3:54pm we saw the second group of five Bigg’s - with the male - also heading slowly south in Blackney again, but this time accompanied by three humpbacks! The orcas didn’t seem to be hunting at this point, although we didn’t have eyes underwater it seemed like both parties were tolerating the others’ presence. Eventually, the Bigg’s left the group of humpbacks and continued south on a long, deep dive. At 4:59pm, just before they cleared our view, they were seen very close to the sea lion rocks on Hanson - those poor sea lions have really had a day of it! With all of that excitement going on, we began to hear A34 calls yet again off Cracroft Point - the group had travelled back into Johnstone Strait via Weynton Passage. We heard them faintly and only for a short time and we heard them last at 5:24pm in the Strait. The rest of the night was quiet, thankfully giving us a chance to process our thousands of photographs and sort IDs!
OrcaLab
02 Nov 2019 21:01:35 PST |
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. . .and now for the November 1 summary: Summary for November 1st 2019 A34s, Humpbacks (Moonstar, Backsplash, Slash) The day started where October 31 ended: loud boat noise on our hydrophones in Blackney Pass and Johnstone Strait. The A34s were in the Strait yesterday evening, last heard at 10:38pm, and we heard them back on our hydrophones at 2:09am today. They sounded distant at first and masked by the grind of a tug boat engine. A few hours later, when the boat noise decreased, we were finally able to enjoy the acoustic scene going on. A humpback had started to call in Blackfish Sound and burst into song at 4:07am. What a spectacular piece he performed! At about the same time, the Northern Residents made their way closer to our Cracroft Point hydrophone in the Strait. We last heard them at 5:16am, but the humpback continued to sing in Blackfish Sound, moving into Blackney Pass by 6:05am. We enjoyed his song right on our doorstep for an hour, just before the dawn. A brief silence until 9:07am when we began hearing A1 (A34) calls once again, in Robson Bight. The acoustics in this area are very distinctive, producing an echoey sound as the calls reverberate around the Bight. They remained distant for a while, but gradually began their move to the west - we picked up their calls on Cracroft Point at 10:41am, and later found them on our remote camera at 10:54am, straight in front of CP in Johnstone Strait. They looked like they were heading our way! Sure enough, by 11:16am we saw them make a determined move into Blackney Pass, and by 11:21 we had them in our sight, heading north. They were travelling fast and in two spread out groups. The first group, travelling on the far side of the pass, contained A55 and his mum, A34, with A96, the three A67s and we believe A80 - one of the large sprouting males from this matriline. A few minutes later, the remaining four fins came into view. We believe this to be all four of the A62 matriline, as we identified A91 and another large sprouting male - likely A83. By 11:40 they had cleared our view heading north into Blackfish Sound. We continued to hear them in the Sound for a little while, until 12:24pm when the hydrophones fell silent. The afternoon was full of humpbacks, we counted at least eight individuals at one point! We successfully identified Moonstar, Slash and Backsplash, and at 6:51pm one of them treated us to a brief round of whalesong on our local hydrophone, which lasted until 8:10pm. The rest of the night was quiet until 11:30pm - but that can wait until our next update!
OrcaLab
02 Nov 2019 20:40:45 PST |
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It was a busy day in Johnstone Strait, Blackney Pass and Blackfish Sound with both Bigg's and Northern Residents present. Back tracking . . . here is the summary for October 31. Summary for October 31 2019 A34s, Humpbacks (Slash, Argonaut, Backsplash) Today started pretty early again with humpback calls in Johnstone Strait from 2:45am to 3:23am and then again from 6:42am to 7:08am. As the morning light started to shine through the clouds in Blackney Pass, we saw a few humpbacks including Slash and Argonaut. They stayed in the Pass during the entire day as we identified them again later in the afternoon, accompanied by Backsplash and at least 3 other humpbacks that we were not able to identify. At 4pm, we received a report from Jared Towers that there were orcas between Bold Head and Donegal Head. We started to hear them in Blackfish Sound at 4:42pm and were able to acoustically identify the A34s. By 5pm, they travelled through Weynton Passage into Johnstone Strait where we heard them at 7:02pm. They were quite vocal as they made their way east towards the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. At 9:21pm, a humpback made a few sounds at the entrance of Blackney Pass but remained faint for about an hour. We stopped hearing the orcas at 9:25pm. The maritime traffic was quite busy that evening in Blackfish Sound, Blackney Pass and Johnstone Strait. A lot of boat noise made our monitoring unpleasant but we heard the A34s for a few minutes again at 10:33pm before they became silent, their calls completely inaudible because of the loud boat noise. We hope tomorrow things will quieten down on the boat noise and the whales will still be in range of our hydrophones!
OrcaLab
02 Nov 2019 20:33:21 PST |
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Distant calls audible.
A1 calls on Cracroft Point hydrophone, the A34s most likely went through Weynton Passage and are now easting back into Johnstone Straight.
Jeremie
02 Nov 2019 15:40:21 PST |
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We have a group of Biggs traveling slowly South in Blackney Pass right now. Watch live at https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base
Orcalab
02 Nov 2019 11:58:47 PST |
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Superb sounds!!
A34s now in Robson Bight, too. Lovely clear calls.
Suzie
02 Nov 2019 05:38:46 PST |
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Superb sounds!!
And again, lovely clear humpback vocals in Johnstone Strait!
Suzie
02 Nov 2019 04:44:56 PST |
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