A34s spotted

No orcas present.

Cetacealab has seen the A34s recently and Bill and Donna Mackay tried to follow up a report of several "fins" in Fitzhugh Sound. Nothing has shown up as yet west of Port Hardy. Meanwhile, as we wait an wait.... the humpbacks and minke continue their residency in the "core" area much to the delight of the whale watchers.
Helena
29 Jun 2010 08:13:52 PDT

Humpbacks

No orcas present.

Yesterday a very familiar pair of humpbacks, Chunky and Stripe (aka Notchos & Salsa) were going back and forth between Blackney Pass and Blackfish Sound. Twister was also around for a loose trio.
Helena
26 Jun 2010 06:34:00 PDT

No orcas present.

Lovely, lovely morning here! A humpback was lazily travelling north this morning in Blackney Pass at 6am. Paul has posted his 3rd IWC comment. There have been problems accessing orcalab.org. Anna thinks it may be the host server. Please be patient and keep trying. It is working again right now. Paul was off this afternoon to the Avaaz presentation of their petition.
Helena
22 Jun 2010 07:57:24 PDT

Humpbacks

No orcas present.

No sign of resident whales yet in this area but several humpbacks continue to be settling in for the season. Recently, there have been large groups of dolphins (200 - 500) quite nearby and small groups of Dalls porpoise have rounded out the increasingly busy scene.
Helena
21 Jun 2010 04:45:59 PDT

No orcas present.

Jackie reports that a new, never seen in this area, humpback is around. We hae had a mum & baby in Blackney for the last few days. The young one delighted everyone by breaching twice. No Ids yet.
Helena
21 Jun 2010 19:46:17 PDT

Performing maintenance

Audio should be working again. Today, humpbacks moving between Blackfish Sound and Blackney Pass for most of the day. According to the Tuan (Seasmoke Whale Watching) there were also dolphins in Blackfish Sound earlier. And finally some sun as well.
Helena
19 Jun 2010 16:42:18 PDT

L pod in the area

Distant calls audible.

Here is a surprise! A group of yet to be idenified orcas passed through Blackfish Sound and Blackney Pass earlier. They are just becoming audible nearing Robson Bight. Still difficult to hear but it does not yet sound like northern residents. 200 dolphin were also seen by Stubbs Island Whale Watch along with three humpbacks.
Helena
17 Jun 2010 15:50:17 PDT

No orcas present.

Yes, the whales today were the Ls (Southern Residents) doing a tour around Vancouver Island. Mary Borrowman at Stubbs Island Whale Watching confirmed the information. Hopefully, they are well on their way back to the San Juans!
Helena
17 Jun 2010 21:35:54 PDT

A32 Cracroft missing

CetaceaLab reports that a large group of northern resident whales were nearby yesterday (June 15). The group included the A5s, A24s, A34s, Cs and Ds. The A36s were also there along with A12. This is the second sighting of the A36s with A12. Sadly, it looks as if A32 (Cracroft) is now gone as he was not seen during either encounter. He will be missed very much. On another track, Paul is off to the IWC. The meeting is being held in Agadir, Morocco this year. We have set up a blog on www.orcalab.org (link at the top right) so that he will be able to post summaries and comments during the meeting. It is a crucial year for the IWC and for whales. The threat to resume commercial whaling is a very real possibility.
Helena
16 Jun 2010 08:27

Audio streaming

Boat noise

Thanks to JStream and Jesse Gordon, we're streaming live audio again. Thanks, too, for your patience!
Paul & Helena
03 Jun 2010 22:19:08 PDT

Chatting dolphins

We had very vocal dolphins on the critical point hydrophone last night from 2230-0545 this morning!! Just now we spotted ~100 dolphins traveling North through Blackney Passage and they were briefly vocal on the Flower island hydrophone.
Marie
30 May 2010 11:22:48 PDT

Minke whale

Spring is definitely in the air around here, yesterday we had a Minke about 75m in front of the lab heading South @ 1715 as well as a humpback about 170m off the lab heading North @1805!
Marie
29 May 2010 11:08:30 PDT

Grey whale in JS

We spotted a Gray whale from the lookout station called Sundance in Johnstone Strait!!! It was 250m offshore heading West @1250.
Marie & Leah
27 May 2010 16:04:33 PDT

Humpback whale

We just spotted a humpback by the Swanson island shoreline slowly heading North!!
Marie
26 May 2010 12:55:13 PDT

T018 and T019s

No orcas present.

Lots of transient movement lately. Jared Towers reported that T18 & T19 were seen travelling west yesterday afternoon past Alert Bay.
Helena
25 May 2010 08:03:30 PDT

Just an update - We have confirmed the the T's we had in Blackney Pass yesterday were T018 and T019's.
Leah
25 May 2010 09:08:58 PDT

T14

No calls but orcas nearby

We had T14 silently pass by the lab at 1835 yesterday. He was only 60m off shore and the water was like glass, a beautiful sight! At 1937 he made a few calls on Flower Island. Then at 0100 this morning we had dolphins on the Parson Island hydrophone.
Leah & Marie
24 May 2010 10:21:31 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby

We managed to spot 4 transients,1 male, heading North through Blackney Passage at 1439, despite the strong winds and choppy seas. They took a detour into Parson Bay then turned at 1515 and headed South and out of view by 1600.
Marie & Leah
24 May 2010 16:34:09 PDT

Performing maintenance

We are making some changes to our network, so will be down for a while. Hope to be back live soon. Thanks for your patience, & our best wishes to you all.
Paul & Helena
23 May 2010 15:59:08 PDT

T093, T097

We caught up with T093 and T097 in Blackney Pass yesterday at 1835 on our way to the rubbing beaches to perfrom some maintenance. Jared Towers picked them up in Weyton as they headed west and confirmed their identification. We have also had dolphins on Flower Island since 0300. Things are really picking up around here:)
Leah & Marie
21 May 2010 05:10:27 PDT

We received word from Jim Borrowman that 3 Orcas, including 1 adult male, headed east past Telegraph Cove at 2000hrs last night.
Leah
20 May 2010 15:40:03 PDT

T020, T021, T002C, T002C1 and T002C2

Just a quick note to say the transients from May 15th were T020, T021, T002C, T002C1 and T002C2.
Marie
19 May 2010 10:29:09 PDT

Transients

No calls but orcas nearby

We had 5 Transient's quietly head south in Blackney Pass last night at 2100hrs. We watched them for a short while until they slipped into the fog, what a beautiful sight. The water was flat calm and you could hear their respiration from across the Pass. We would have updated you all then, but we were having problems with the internet:)
Leah & Marie
18 May 2010 07:36:21 PDT

No calls but orcas nearby

We watched 5 Transient's quietly head south in Blackney Pass last night at 2100hrs as they slipped into the fog. The water was so calm you could hear their blows loud and clear across the Pass. We couldn't update you all in real time as we had no internet, but all is good now.
Leah & Marie
18 May 2010 07:39:09 PDT

Performing maintenance

We are making some technical changes that will interrupt our internet connection commencing around 11am PST on Sunday May 16th. We're not sure how long the changeover will take, but it could be a few days. Please excuse the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience!
Paul & Helena
15 May 2010 22:51:02 PDT