No calls but orcas nearby We had a report at 10:11am this morning from Alex Morton that there was one male Orca heading from Donegal head to Stubbs Island. The whale was later confirmed as T011A. Thanks for the report Alex!  Orcalab  24 Jun 2020 15:32:29 PDT This morning around 8am we had a seriously close encounter with Humpbacks Guardian and Ojos Blancos also known as White Eyes. We first heard them surface around Burnt point and they couldn't not have been more than 10 meters away from the waters edge. With it being low tide we couldn't believe how close they were. The pair inspected the bay between the lab and Kurt's point and then disappeared around it out of our sight. After inspecting that bay the pair made their way back past us stopping off on Yashi's beach just to check that out surfacing inches from our mored boat Sonic. Guardian rolled around a few times not in a hurry to move along until Ojos made his or hers way back around Burnt Point. Friend of Orcalab, handy electrician and wildlife guid AJ once taught me (Megan) one of his favourite activities when he is out on the water in his little boat in which he explores as close to the shoreline around all the little nooks and bays of one island until he knows it like the back of his hand. He calls this "Gunkholing". I do believe that this morning Guardian and Ojos Blancos were in fact... GUNKHOLING around Orclab! Thanks for the memories you beautiful whales, Here is a few photos from the encounter!  Megan  24 Jun 2020 15:25:41 PDT

Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely encounter around 4:00pm with four humpback whales in Blackney Pass. KC was first spotted heading north. Then shortly after this three whales appeared traveling very close together. We initially identified two out of three of the whales as Stitch and Guardian. Later with the help of Jackie Hildering of the Marine education and research society the last whale was identified as Quartz who is another regular to Blackney Pass. Our new lab camera the Canon 90D along with the amazing Sigma 150-600mm lens has allowed us to identify so many more humpbacks from land to which we are incredibly grateful for. Orcalab  22 Jun 2020 13:19:40 PDT

There are 3 Humpback whales traveling together in Blackney Pass. Watch it live on Explore.org! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 21 Jun 2020 17:03:48 PDT

We have a Humpback pec slapping in blackney Pass in the beautiful evening light. Watch live on Explore. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan Quin and Suzie  15 Jun 2020 18:04:08 PDT We have a Humpback pec slapping in blackney Pass in the beautiful evening light. Watch live on Explore. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orclaab  15 Jun 2020 18:03:19 PDT

At around 19:14pm this evening Quin spotted a lone male Orca heading north in Blackney Pass. The whale slowly made it's way into Blackfish sound as we lost him out of our sight at around 19:30pm. We heard no calls and saw no other whales during this encounter. We sent the photos off to Jared Towers and he thought it could possibly be T011A but couldn't be sure with the whales being quite a distance from our shoreline.  Orcalab 10 Jun 2020 20:43:34 PDT There is a single male orca heading North in Blackney Pass. Check it out on our Base Cam! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 10 Jun 2020 19:18:44 PDT

There are a couple of humpbacks swimming in the tide rip on OrcaLab Base cam! Tune in at https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 07 Jun 2020 11:42:20 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby To round up this afternoons events. At around 02:30pm I spotted some splashing out in Blackney Pass close to the Parson Island shoreline. Sure enough after looking through the scope I spotted a huge black fin rising out of the water and shortly after I witnessed a smaller whale launch its entire body out of the water. I started a recording and ran out to the deck to take photos as Helena operated the camera. I made an assumption early on that it was Bigg's orca as opposed to Residents just through the behaviour it looked as if they were hunting something. Perhaps a sea-lion or a porpoise. They were so far away it was hard to tell. They continued on their hunt for around ten minuets. At around 02:45pm they took a deep dive whilst heading south along the waters edge of Parsons Island. We feared we had lost them entirely after about 30 minuets of searching on all our camera systems but Jared Towers who had come out in the research boat The Merlin came to our rescue and spotted them heading into Baronet Passage along the Cracroft Island shoreline at 03:32pm. He quickly identified them as the T090's. We followed them on the camera in the distance as they headed down Baronet and we believe they and Jared are still there. Unfortunately there were no calls on the recording but we did manage to get a few nice moments on our base cam live on explore. You can scroll back to watch between 02:30pm and 02:45pm. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan 04 Jun 2020 17:04:09 PDT No calls but orcas nearby We have a group of Biggs hunting in Blackney Pass around 2nd bay. No calls yet. Watch live on the explore base cam here. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan 04 Jun 2020 14:38:11 PDT

Guardian is back this morning continuing with the acrobatics of last night. There is one other whale who we cant get an ID of yet. Watch live on Base cam with explore.org https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan  03 Jun 2020 09:42:36 PDT

Wow what an evening with Humpbacks. We think 5 in total today. First off we had Ojos Blancos at 02:00pm heading south. Then much later at around 08:00pm I spotted Nova heading south on her own. Shortly after I spotted Squiggle further away also heading south. At around 08:14pm two more whales appeared to be traveling alongside Nova this time in the opposite direction, heading north. I immediately recognized our dear friend Guardian who has been seen several times with the young whale Nova so far this year. the other whale i initially thought could be Ojos Blancos but Jackie later considered it could also have been bumpy... Time will tell with further investigation. At around 09:00pm things got very exciting when Guardian started peck slapping followed by Nova making multiple acrobatic breaches in the glorious last moments of the days light as they all headed south towards Cracroft Point. This continued on till I lost the light. Whilst I was out on the deck taking photos, Helena was busy monitoring the explore cameras from back in Alert Bay so if you scroll back on base cam to around 09:00pm you should be able to catch a glimpse of the show! A big thanks also to Jackie Hildering in Port Macneill from MERS for the extra help at the end of the day identifying all of these whales! All in all a wonderful team effort monitoring Blackney Pass for these lovely moment as summer begins.  Megan  02 Jun 2020 22:26:20 PDT We currently have three Humpbacks, Nova, Ojos Blancos and Guardian here in Blackney Pass. You can watch them live now and scroll back on Explore to watch more. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan  02 Jun 2020 20:50:41 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby A thoroughly exciting afternoon here at the lab. Quin first spotted the orca around Parsons light at approximately 14:15. Suzie and Megan both headed to the lab to start a recording and to find them on the cameras. The whales were rather too far away for us to identify immediately, although we knew they were Bigg's due to the more pointy shape to their fins. We counted 7 whales in total. 5 small fins, a baby and a larger male that Quin felt looked familiar to the male T075A we had seen a few days previous. After an encounter spanning over an hour and half with the whales changing direction multiple times we wondered if they were looking for food but not successful. They finally cleared from our view heading north into Blackfish Sound at 15:35. Thanks to Jared Towers for coming out and helping us piece together who these whales were. He confirmed it was in fact the two whales we had seen two days ago T075 and her son T075A, accompanied by T023C and her family of three offspring. Surprisingly T023, T023C's mother, was also present which is unusual as she usually spends her time with another of her offspring: T023D and her family. Meanwhile, humpbacks Guardian and one other unidentified whale were doing some incredible acrobatics at Cracroft Point, we counted at least three double breaches! It really feels like the spring is passing over into summer with what turned out to be quite the busy afternoon including that signature north westerly wind. Orcalab 26 May 2020 20:31:04 PDT No calls but orcas nearby We have a group of Orca heading north in Blackney Pass right now. Watch live at Explore. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 26 May 2020 14:18:17 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby Here at the lab we had an exciting morning. After a full day of rain yesterday we awoke to a growing south east wind and grey skies. Things were quiet until we heard Quin shout "ORCA". T075 and her son T075A passed by the lab heading south in Blackney Pass at 11:13am. Quin first spotted them from the guest house and we all gathered on the deck to follow them as they passed by close to the lab. They cleared from our view at 11:27am heading towards the Johnstone Strait. Jared Towers and Ely Durand were already out on the water awaiting their arrival at the south entrance of Blackney Pass. The whales headed east close by Cracroft Point and down towards the Baron Reefs likely in search of the seals that frequent the rocks during these low tides. Jared and Ely followed them as the continued east and left the pair heading past the Sophia's towards the West Cracrfot shoreline at around 12:15pm. Jared and Ely stopped by for a brief boat to shore chat but with the wind picking up didn't stop for long. He told us that these whales, T075 and T075A are usually seen in the waters off the southern end of Vancouver Island and also up in Alaska and that this is his first time he has ever seen this pair traveling in the Johnstone Strait. He assumed they usually use the west coast of Vancouver Island to transit between the two areas. We feel very lucky that we were able to witness them pass by the lab so close this morning.  Orcalab 24 May 2020 13:02:18 PDT We just had a passing of orcas right in front of the lab! No calls. Orcalab 24 May 2020 11:19:55 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby We have a group of Orca heading north in Backney Pass. No calls yet. A large group with at least three males! A very foggy morning but watch live on Orclaab base cam.https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab  17 May 2020 08:53:09 PDT

It now appears we have three Humpbacks and some dolphins in Blackney Pass heading south. Jigger, Twister and one other. Scroll back on Base cam and also Sealion rock to see some of the action! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab  13 May 2020 14:23:23 PDT More humpbacks! Jigger and Twister were seen this morning around 8:25am, heading south in Blackney Passage. We were a little unsure of their ID's but we have just seen them yet again heading north into Blackfish Sound. They gave us a lovely view of their flukes and dorsals which we could match to this morning's viewing. So wonderful to have the humpbacks returning. Many thanks to Jackie Hildering for the confirmation of their IDs, and to all the work of MERS for documenting these wonderful whales back in the summer feeding grounds. Orcalab  13 May 2020 14:22:23 PDT

We are watching a Humpback close to shore on the sea lion camera. We haven't managed to identify the whale yet but tune in live here at:https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-steller-sea-lion-haulout Suze, Megan and Quin  11 May 2020 10:23:55 PDT

Performing maintenance Live audio streaming is back! Many thanks to all involved in resolving the issue, Momoko Kobayashi, Seiji Inagaki, Jérémie and Quin. OrcaLab 10 May 2020 12:03:24 PDT

Maintenance: We are currently experiencing some issues with our live stream. Please bear with us whilst we try and troubleshoot these problems and try and get things up and running again, THANKS!  Orcalab 08 May 2020 15:50:03 PDT