No calls but orcas nearby https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base OL crew 03 Jul 2021 21:22:51 PDT Superb sounds!! Whales rubbing, lovely lovely sounds!!!!! OrcaLab 03 Jul 2021 20:12:22 PDT Please note: In our summary for July 2 there was a typo, the following should read - "There were three other orcas further back whom we later identified as the A75s (Cedar's) family (of the A54s). " OrcaLab 03 Jul 2021 07:25:59 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby July 2 2021 Orcas: A50s, A54s, A23s, A25s Humpbacks: Argonaut, Potamus, Ripple (& new calf), Stitch Our anticipation is over, the waiting is done: The Northern Residents have arrived! We are thrilled to share our exciting day with you and to announce that the season has well and truly begun. The morning brought excitement of the humpback kind, as Jackie Hildering confirmed that lab assistant Kamilla had documented Ripple with a new calf. We have seen Ripple consistently over the last few years and we are so happy to see her back here with a fourth calf. Then, after lunch, we received one of the most exciting reports of the year to date: A group of 10 orcas - including the A25s - rubbing at Bere Point at 12:18pm and heading east! The change in atmosphere at the lab was instant and electric. We loaded up our new Flower Island camera which can see all the way into Blackfish Sound and along the shore of Malcolm Island, and turned our hydrophone up high. It was a fairly agonising wait, as every wave caused by the northwesterly wind sent a momentary ‘orca?!’ chill down the spine. Finally, at 2:39pm, we heard our first A5 calls in Blackfish Sound and there was an audible ‘woohoo’ as Quin celebrated the first melodies of the season. At 3:20pm, A1 calls joined the mix and the unmistakable ‘N47’ of the A50s/A54s brought smiles all round. The first fin in Blackney Pass at 3:57pm was a welcome sight: A60’s (Fife’s) dorsal cutting through waves mid-pass, bucking the ebb tide opposing his stride. A few minutes later, we spotted several more fins in the chop, who we later learned were A54 (Minstrel), A106 (Nowell) and A118 of the A54s - thank you Jared Towers. Just as they cleared our view into Johnstone Strait, more orcas appeared from the north at 4:20pm, and this time they were close. More warm smiles ensued as the square-topped A61(Surge) lopped into view, accompanied by A85 (Cordero) and baby Twilight, A121. They followed the earlier group, accompanied by the A86s (Cutter’s - also of the A54s), into the Strait at 4:33pm, and we began to hear their mixed A1/A5 calls on both our Kaizumi and Cracroft Point hydrophones. We tracked their movements east as they foraged, and hoped that they would head to the rubbing beaches. Their determined pace suggested that they might. We weren’t expecting any further groups as these orcas matched all reports for the day, but at 4:52pm we saw more fins in Blackney Pass, also heading south! They were spread out in the pass, and we had a sneaking suspicion that they must include the A50s. One by one, we saw sprouter A84 (Kloaitis), A50 (Clio) with her baby (A123) and A99 (Alder), and finally A72 (Bend) and A108 (Jamieson) escorting the parade from the rear. There were three other orcas further back whom we later identified as the A75’s (Cutter’s) family (of the A54s). That gives a full house for all four matrilines with everyone accounted for! As we had hoped, all groups made a bee-line for the rubbing beaches! By 5:56pm the first fins were on Strider Rubbing Beach camera, and they began to rub shortly after. We heard the A54s and saw the tall dorsal of A60 (A23s). They did only a few passes at this beach, before hopping east to Main Rubbing Beach and rubbing briefly there. They then continued eastward. The A25s came next at 6:25pm, all three of them, and also did a brief rub at Strider, then Main, then headed east. One whale from the first group had hung back and was still rubbing, it looked like A54 herself. We captured our first underwater footage from our new Strider Underwater Camera - another exciting event to add to the day! The A50s (and possibly A75s) arrived last at 6:35pm, true to their order from earlier in the day. They stayed much longer at Strider than the previous groups, and at 6:46pm their heightened, excited N47s signified the arrival of A72 and A108 to the beach - the “latecomers” today it would seem. By 7.18pm their rub had ended after a brief visit to Main beach, before they too headed east. We lost all calls for a couple of hours and wondered how long and how far they would travel east, but at 8:48pm we picked up A5 calls once again in Johnstone Strait, shortly followed by A1 calls at 9:04pm. We are currently trying to locate the westing whales on our remote cameras before the light fails. After that, our underwater ears will continue to piece together the picture through the night, as they have done for the last five decades.  OrcaLab 02 Jul 2021 21:59:05 PDT Distant calls audible. We have our first calls of the season! A5s and A1s. Listen live with us: cod.orca-live.net/orcalab/orcalab_comment/ OrcaLab 02 Jul 2021 14:55:49 PDT No orcas present. Summary 1 July Orcas: K12s, K13s, K14s Humpbacks: Argonaut, Stitch, Ripple, Neptune (?) And so begins the summer season, in similar fashion to last year with some 'surprise' residents! On 29 June, we received a report that a group of Southern Residents were off Adam River around 2pm - further east in Johnstone Strait than we can see or hear. This report came as quite the surprise as nobody had seen them enter Johnstone Strait. There are many pairs of eyes on the water right now as we anticipate the first Northern Residents, so we wonder if they took a more northerly route (the "back route") which is sometimes favoured by the A42s. Today, we received a further report from Jared Towers that the K12s, K13s and K14s were seen in Rosario this morning, which would line up nicely with them being the same group as on the 29th. Around the same time on the 29th, J pod were confirmed off the west coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino. That's a lot of the Southern Residents accounted for, but still no news of the Northern Residents! While we wait with ears and eyes open, we are busying ourselves with the system installations and humpback identifications. New lab assistant Kamilla has been hard at work out on the deck each day, and today has identified at least 5 different humpbacks right outside the lab. Our rubbing beach cameras are installed, along with a new surface camera at Flower Island which extends our "eyes" further into Blackfish Sound. We cannot wait to see those first black fins on the horizon! OrcaLab 02 Jul 2021 09:17:17 PDT

Yesterday, A wonderful moment at Orcalab when Ramon and Kamilla saw their first ever Orcas! The Bigg's orcas were first reported by Larry Roy passing the Sophia Islands, they then turned into Blackney Pass and travelled north fairly close to Hanson Island. Thanks Jared for identifying the T030Bs, T117B and T172. Earlier the T123s passed Alert Bay at 11:30am. Jared has appropriately dubbed the near continuous stream of Bigg's orcas at this time of year, "the Salish Exodus" Great to be witness to this event once again. OrcaLab 21 Jun 2021 07:34:47 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby We have had a report that Orca's are heading into Blackney Pass from the Johnstone Strait. We are waiting ready with our cameras, Watch live at Explore: https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan  07 Jun 2021 11:13:46 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby We have the T018's and T019B heading south in Blackney Pass. Watch live on Explore.org https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan  05 Jun 2021 17:11:27 PDT

A short while ago, we had some humpback calls on Main Rubbing Beach. We briefly spotted him on Main Rubbing Beach camera heading east. Tune in here: https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Gloria 30 May 2021 17:48:08 PDT

Group of Pacific white Sided Dolphins here in Blackney pass, Watch live and scroll back on Explore.org to watch. https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Gloria  29 May 2021 10:15:15 PDT

Superb sounds!! We have some beautiful Bigg's calls right now. So wonderful to hear them!  Janie, Megan and Rich! 23 May 2021 09:18:28 PDT

This afternoon around 14:20 Megan spotted a large male orca fin heading north from the guest house. Janie and Megan promptly headed to the lab, started a recording and began to take photos. Megan quickly recognized one of the large males as T019B. The group of four were traveling fast to the north. No calls were made and at 14:41 they cleared into to Blackfish sound. We continued a recording but no calls were made. We later reviewed the images and identified all four members of the group, T018, T019, T019B and T019C.  Megan and Janie 13 May 2021 21:32:51 PDT

This beautiful early May morning started with the most calming of pink sunrises surrounded by a menagerie of bird life including a favorite of Megan’s, the Pacific Loons. Quin and the rest of the crew set off early to the rubbing beaches to redeploy one of our hydrophones. The reasons for this necessary redeployment was it itself an amazing story. First deployed successfully last year the hydrophone became the victim of very voracious urchins who took an unfortunate liking to the cable crippling the hydrophone. The effort today was a great success, a few hours later, back at the lab, we tuned in and could hear a fine sounding signal coming from Strider. Another step closer to summer! As they began to head back to the lab around 13:30 Quin spotted orca blows heading west at the Sophia Islands. We alerted Jared Towers, started a recording and Megan began to search on the Cracroft Point camera. A short while later around 14:00 whilst searching Johnstone Strait with the remote camera,, Megan spotted a large male dorsal fin out of the corner of her eye at Gabe’s rock, heading north in Blackney Pass. ORCA! This was the first sighting for Megan since she returned back to Hanson for the summer. There were no calls but the four whales, consisting of 1 male, 1 juvenile and two smaller fins began to circle around “2nd Bay” back and forth for a long while. They were far over towards the other side of the pass so photo IDing the whales was proving tricky. Quin arrived back at the lab with the rest of the crew and began to sift through the catalog to look for potential matches. The orcas slowly made their way north through Blackney Pass, the juvenile ahead slightly from the rest of the group. They all cleared into Blackfish sound around 14:48 and we kept a recording going, waiting patiently for some calls. Sadly, we didn't hear anything on our Flower Island hydrophone but Lisa at Double Bay was out in her kayak and spotted them and reported they headed towards Donegal Head where they turned west and continued along Malcolm Island towards Stubbs Island around 15:45. New Captain Valarie from Prince of Whales later reported identifying the whales as the T055’s. A great effort from all concerned.  Orcalab  04 May 2021 20:22:26 PDT We have a group of Bigg's orca heading north in Blackney Pass. Watch live on EXPLORE. https://www.explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Megan Janie and Hayley  04 May 2021 14:15:50 PDT

As the sunny heatwave days of mid-April come to a close, we're beginning to see more and more of the familiar transformations of Spring. Particularly enjoyable as of late has been the presence of very large flocks of birds in Blackney Pass. Hundreds of Red-breasted and Common Mergansers, Rhinoceros Auklets, Glaucous-winged and Mew gulls, Bald eagles and an incredible array of Pacific Loons have assembled to feed and cohabitate in an inspiring spectacle. The sea lions have well and truly moved on from their usual winter haul-out rock just a kilometer down the Hanson Island shore, and there has been little heard from the world of cetaceans. As we approach the up-coming summer season we remain grateful for our beautiful environment and for the folks that continue to support us in myriad ways. -OrcaLab Team Quin 24 Apr 2021 10:17:12 PDT

Last night as the vibrant day faded into a dramatic golden evening, excited dolphin chatter began to tickle the underwater soundscape of Johnstone Strait. After about 40 minutes this joyful banter subsided, but the night sky began to come alive. At 11:15PM we were thrilled to notice the beginning of a true spectacle: Aurora Borealis just beginning to light up the northeastern sky in a two-hour long symphony waterfall of green and orange. It was absolutely stunning. As if the previous night's dolphins were a promise of what was to come, we woke first thing this morning to a few short but distinct Bigg's calls. The encounter was short-lived, and seeing that we did not know which hydrophone they were heard on, we tuned in even closer throughout the day awaiting their arrival. Sure enough at around 2:30PM, clear Bigg's calls arrived on our Main Rubbing Beach hydrophone. They continued off and on for about an hour. We were pleasantly surprised when at 6:05PM the distinct blows of a group of orca rang out from across Blackney Pass near Parson Light. For the first time in a while we rushed to our stations and enjoyed the passing while the usual documentation and discussion occurred. However, the heat shimmer across the water left our photos somewhat unhelpful. We saw four Bigg's orcas total; one distinct male and two females with a smaller orca alongside. Quite the mystery it was when even our friend and colleague Jared Towers proved unsuccessful in the search to photograph these whales today. Nonetheless, as another beautiful night sets in we wait patiently for the return of the orcas and the northern lights. Quin 17 Apr 2021 22:14:33 PDT

No orcas present. Early in the morning on April 12th, from the deck of OrcaLab, we could hear the distinctive blow of a humpback whale. In early April as humpbacks begin to arrive back to these waters, we are always so curious as to who they are and relived when we are able to recognize a whale returning from previous years. This was definitely the case this day as were able to identify this whale as Guardian. She is often one of the first humpback whales to arrive back from the long winter migration, every year, since 2011 and she spends long periods of time in Blackney Pass making her one of our favourites! Though we know she is female, to date she has not been seen with a calf. We are hopeful that her return will be one of many in the weeks to follow. OrcaLab 16 Apr 2021 20:08:03 PDT

Spring has been moving along quite well for us all at the lab. Many projects and plans have been coming into action and we feel blessed to be enjoying some truly phenomenal weather. We witnessed a rather unfortunate sight at the beginning of this week. At around 8:50PM on Monday a whale began making its way across Blackney Pass quickly from Parson Bay. Within minutes of first spotting it, the whale showed up 'on our doorstep,' but something didn't look quite right. Assumed to be a Humpback at first, we noticed a very distinguished spine and visible distension of the whale's belly. It was lifting no more than just its head out of the water and thus we were unable to see a dorsal fin. It was the pigment and texture of the whale's skin that gave away the fact that this seemed to be a different species than a Humpback altogether. Sure enough, Jackie and Christie with MERS confirmed it to be a Grey Whale. We sighted and photographed it once more outside the lab again on Tuesday morning at 11:50AM. With further findings by Jared Towers, the whale proved to be very emaciated, and in generally not great shape. While this whale is still living, the health of this Grey Whale seems to echo similar trends being found in the Grey Whale Unusual Mortality Event highlighted by NOAA here: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2019-2021-gray-whale-unusual-mortality-event-along-west-coast-and Quin 14 Apr 2021 23:06:33 PDT Spring has been moving along quite well for us all at the lab. Many projects and plans have been coming into action and we feel blessed to be enjoying some truly phenomenal weather. We witnessed a rather unfortunate sight at the beginning of this week. At around 8:50PM on Monday a whale began making its way across Blackney Pass quickly from Parson Bay. Within minutes of first spotting it, the whale showed up 'on our doorstep,' but something didn't look quite right. Assumed to be a Humpback at first, we noticed a very distinguished spine and visible distension of the whale's belly. It was lifting no more than just its head out of the water and thus we were unable to see a dorsal fin. It was the pigment and texture of the whale's skin that gave away the fact that this seemed to be a different species than a Humpback altogether. Sure enough, Jackie and Christie with MERS confirmed it to be a Grey Whale. We sighted and photographed it once more outside the lab again on Tuesday morning at 11:50AM. With further findings by Jared Towers, the whale proved to be very emaciated, and in generally not great shape. While this whale is still living, the health of this Grey Whale seems to echo similar trends being found in the Grey Whale Unusual Mortality Event highlighted by NOAA here: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2019-2021-gray-whale-unusual-mortality-event-along-west-coast-and Quin 14 Apr 2021 23:05:14 PDT

No orcas present. We had a rather exciting day at the Lab yesterday! While working on the hydrophone systems in the Lab Jeff spotted a group of orcas heading north on the far side of the Pass. We all scrambled as quickly as we could and managed to catch a glimpse just as the group disappeared into Blackfish Sound. Soon, Lisa who is staying at Double Bay, spotted the group. Jared Towers was alerted and he prepared to go out. When he arrived on scene he found the T007Bs engaged in a hunt. Meanwhile, back at the Lab we watched a second small group as they headed south. This turned out to be the T060s who headed toward the Parson Light and then into Parson Bay. The time was now about 2:30pm. By the time Jared came into Blackney Pass the T060s had turned around and were headed north toward White Beach Pass. Throughout both these encounters we had been hearing Bigg's calls in Johnstone Strait. Jared left the T060s and went looking for the third group but time and wind discouraged the effort. Later, we heard the calls nearer the Ecological Reserve. Helena 06 Apr 2021 10:38:00 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby There are now 4 more Bigg's orcs ion Blackney, opposite the Lab, generally heading north, though a bit back and forth, possibly hunting. Lab crew 05 Apr 2021 14:29:57 PDT No calls but orcas nearby Orcas heading north in Blackney Pass, at least 2 including one male. Long dive times, so probably Bigg's. Lab crew 05 Apr 2021 13:36:30 PDT