Distant calls audible. After a spell of silence for a few hours in the early morning the A34s are still in the strait. We are currently hearing some distant but excited calls on Parsons island and Cracroft point. Hopefully they will come into Blackney Pass.  Megan, Janie and Helena.  14 Nov 2019 08:32:20 PST Superb sounds!! Listen to this humpback singing at the entrance of Blackney Pass while the orcas (likely the A34s) are calling in Johnstone Strait, not too far from the entrance of Blackney Pass!  Claire 14 Nov 2019 03:46:14 PST

Distant calls audible. The A34s are back into Johnstone Strait ! The calls are sporadic but because we hear them on both Cracroft and Parson Island hydrophones, we can locate the group around Blackney Pass entrance. Jeremie 13 Nov 2019 23:40:53 PST Summary for November 12 2019 Humpbacks - Ridge, Squiggle, Bumpy, Moonstar, Quartz and more A good working day here on Hanson Island! We did not hear a sound on our hydrophones but we sure kept busy. There is a new kitchen door in place and brand new LED lights in the house! Thanks Lucas and AJ! Also lots of workshop cleaning done, wood chopping, video editing and yummy cooking! Team effort at its best. On the ocean front, we saw a lot of humpback whales in the morning. Some were in the Gap while at least 5 were milling and feeding between White Beach Pass and Parson Bay. They were so active and spread out that we didn’t know where to look! As usual, Squiggle and Bumpy were close together. Moonstar and Ridge were also present. But there was another humpback in the lot with an interesting fluke we had not seen before. We definitely wanted to know who this was and scrolled through the MERS ID catalogue to find this whale, without success. We contacted Jackie Hildering who instantly knew that this was Quartz! There were so many new markings on the fluke that we could not believe it at first but when looking just a little closer, we could match it 100% with the old markings. An intensely colourful rainbow pierced the sky to the north of Backney Pass. It was a beautiful day filled with everyone’s positive energies.  OrcaLab 13 Nov 2019 21:14:07 PST Summary for November 11 2019 A34s, Humpbacks - Ridge, Moonstar, Bumpy, Cutter Have we already told you about this taste of “déjà vu” we often feel here on Hanson Island? Well, this morning was just like yesterday’s with a vocal humpback on our local hydrophone at 3:34am. Except that there was no boat noise disturbing his song this time and we were delighted to listen properly to his various vocalisations. He continued sporadically after 3:36am while another humpback was singing in Blackfish Sound. We stopped hearing them just before 5am. Later that morning around 10am, we heard the A34s on our Cracroft Point hydrophone in Johnstone Strait. They were distant at first and we believe they were coming back from the west where we last saw them heading to yesterday thanks to our remote camera. At 12:51pm, they were getting closer to our Cracroft Point hydrophone and we heard beautiful and excited close calls until 1:45pm. The weather was rainy and cloudy, which is not ideal for the solar panels producing energy for our remote camera and we were unfortunately not able to use our Cracroft Point camera today to observe this very vocal orca family. They travelled further away from our hydrophone after 1:51pm but continued to call for most of the afternoon. At 3:30pm we spotted 4 familiar humpbacks in Blackney Pass named Moonstar, Ridge, Bumpy and Cutter. The last A34s calls were at 3:57pm. We spent the rest of the day all together around a delicious dinner with our friend Janie from bcwhales.org and AJ who will be working on the main house lighting and electrical to improve our power consumption.  OrcaLab 13 Nov 2019 21:10:41 PST A humpback in singing on our Flower island hydrophone.  Megan's last night in the lab! 13 Nov 2019 19:53:47 PST

Four Humpbacks feeding in front of the lab ! The whales are in line with West Pass, watch now ! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base?fbclid=IwAR3ZYa_4e0_2zwHVUJLW4KzgA6pu58dcJNZxWorX5P3nIF_h1Sud2RfcGMw Jeremie 12 Nov 2019 09:44:40 PST

Summary for November 10 2019 A34s, Humpbacks - Bumpy, Ridge, Moonstar, Backsplash Today started as early as 3am with a vocal humpback on our local hydrophone in Blackney Pass. For the most part, his song was unfortunately covered by the loud noise of boat travelling north in the Pass. At 4:30am, there were still humpback sounds in Blackney Pass and we heard Pacific White-sided dolphins too. The A34s started to call in Johnstone Strait on our Cracroft Point hydrophone at 6am. At the same time, we heard the dolphins again and a humpback in Blackney Pass for about 10 minutes. Another humpback was briefly vocal in Blackfish Sound around 6:38am. We spotted the Pacific White-sided dolphins travelling in front of the Lab and heading south at 8:40am. It was a foggy morning in Johnstone Strait and we could not locate the orcas on our remote Cracroft Point camera but they were still calling, more or less distant. After about half an hour of silence, we heard them close to our hydrophone in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve between 9:08am and 9:12am. We believe they continued east to the Rubbing Beaches, clearing the range of our hydrophone before coming back around 10:09am. They were close to our hydrophone in the Reserve at 10:29am when we heard echolocation sounds and loud calls. The fog had disappeared by then in the Strait and we were able to see four fins foraging just outside the Reserve on our remote camera at 10:49am. They slowly made their way west up Johnstone Strait and we spotted a fin on our Cracroft Point camera at 11:51am. They were close and vocal on our Cracroft Point hydrophone at 11:57am, soon echoing to our Parson Island hydrophone covering the entrance of Blackney Pass. At 12:23pm, we heard independant calls on the Parson Island hydrophone and were expecting them to travel north into the Pass. But they didn’t. The humpbacks Ridge, Bumpy, Backsplash and Moonstar were spotted in Blackney Pass though. We had been gifted with some of the most amazing trap feeding activity since 10:30am, including Moonstar feeding very close to the Hanson Island shore, just south of the lab at 12:52pm! We were able to capture all these incredible moments on our local camera that transmitted the footage live on explore.org for some lucky viewers! The Northern Residents continued to call in Johnstone Strait for a bit and we heard them last at 1:24pm. Later in the afternoon, a humpback made a few sounds on our hydrophone in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. We did not hear a sound after 3:26pm.  OrcaLab 11 Nov 2019 20:25:12 PST Summary for November 9 2019 A34s, Bigg’s?, Humpbacks - Claw, Moonstar, Backsplash, Inukshuk, Ridge, Squiggle, ?Domino What a night! After hearing 4 humpbacks sing yesterday evening, we heard 4 others during today’s early hours. The first one started at 12:42am in Johnstone Strait and performed for about an hour. He was followed by a second one at 2:46am in Blackney Pass singing simultaneously with another humpback in the Robson Bight. That one then continued on his own. His calls produced an amazing natural reverberation and continued until 4:09am. We briefly heard the A34s in Johnstone Strait at 5:06am and then again at 6:26am when a fourth humpback started to make squeaky sounds on our local hydrophone! The Northern Residents continued to be vocal on our Cracroft Point hydrophone until 7:39am. By 8:30am, 5 humpbacks were feeding in Blackney Pass at the entrance of White Beach Pass and we identified Claw, Moonstar, Backsplash, Inukshuk and Ridge! 5 out of 5! Yey! At 10am, the A34s resumed on our Cracroft Point hydrophone and we spotted 2 black fins on our remote camera halfway between Cracroft Point and Kaikash Creek on Vancouver Island. They were vocal for most of the day in Johnstone Strait. We watched them head west, favouring the Vancouver Island side. They were just tiny dots on our screen at 10:56am when we lost track of them but we could still hear their calls. They were distant and sporadic with a few excited ones around 12:45pm. The humpback named Claw came close to the lab at 1:35pm and we watched her, Backsplash, Inukshuk and possibly Domino, feeding frenzy in Blackney Pass at 1:41pm. Ten minutes later, the A34s calls became louder on our Cracroft Point hydrophone. As Claire was looking for them on our remote camera, she saw Dall’s porpoises close to the Cracroft Point platform. A black fin, possibly a sprouter, appeared mid strait at 2:24pm in line with Kaikash Creek. He was foraging on his own and we could hear him making N3 calls on our hydrophone. TJ, one of our summer assistants was also looking at the Cracroft Point camera on explore.org a few minutes later and notified us of a small fin heading into Blackney Pass. We all kept our eyes open, scanning the horizon from the lab deck, waiting for them to come in! But at 2:56pm, we spotted 5 fins on the Cracroft Point camera, spread out, in Johnstone Strait towards Telegraph Cove. If anyone came into Blackney, they remained invisible and silent on our local hydrophone! The A34s continued to call sporadically in Johnstone Strait until 3:16pm. From 3:18pm until 3:58pm we heard different calls on our Cracroft Point hydrophone, presumably Bigg’s calls. It wasn’t long before we heard the A34s again for a short time on that same hydrophone: at 5:11pm, they made a few N4s and A12 special calls before going silent except for sporadic N3 calls here and there until 6:33pm. For the past half hour, a humpback was singing a lovely melody composed of whistles, barks, cracks and high pitched violin sounds on our local hydrophone. When he paused, we could hear blows outside, mid channel in line with Harbledown Island. His last notes were at 7pm as we all gathered for a lovely dinner made by chef Megan.  OrcaLab 11 Nov 2019 20:20:41 PST Orcas near mics. There are very excited calls at the moment on our Cracroft Point hydrophone, tune in!  Claire 11 Nov 2019 13:03:01 PST Distant calls audible. A34s calls are in Johnstone Strait on our hydrophone from Cracroft Point with some faint echo on the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. Jeremie 11 Nov 2019 10:47:01 PST Superb sounds!! Humpback whale vocalizations on our local hydrophone. Jeremie 11 Nov 2019 03:37:54 PST

Amazing humpback trap feeding in Blackney Pass! Watch now at https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Claire 10 Nov 2019 12:47:47 PST Orcas near mics. The A34s are in the Robson Bight Reserve, watch them now! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-robson-bight Claire 10 Nov 2019 10:41:11 PST Watch humpbacks feeding in Blackney Pass! We identified Bumpy and Ridge so far. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Claire 10 Nov 2019 10:17:46 PST Orcas near mics. The A34s are vocal in the Robson Bight. Tune in! Claire 10 Nov 2019 09:19:36 PST Not to confuse with what is happening right now but here is the summary for November 8! A34s, Humpbacks - Bumpy, Squiggle, Claw, Moonstar In the early morning light, 3 familiar humpbacks, named Bumpy, Squiggle and Claw, foraged in Blackney Pass. The sun was not quite shining through but the clouds were impressive: we felt like we were inside a Van Gogh artwork! These humpbacks were later joined by Moonstar and they all voraciously enjoyed the feast of a large baitball at the entrance of White Beach Pass at 12:30pm. At 1:43pm, the A34s were vocal in Johnstone Strait and on our remote camera we eventually saw 2 fins (one male and possibly a sprouter) now travelling east between Blinkhorn and Kaikash Creek at 3:56pm. Their calls remained quite distant for most of the day. A humpback sang in Blackfish Sound from 5:09pm until 6:14pm and the Northern Residents calls faded away by 6:20pm, still very faint on the remote hydrophone located in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. The light was already dark by then and rain was pouring in Blackney Pass when we heard loud blows nearby at 6:50pm. We all came out on the deck when 2 humpbacks, possibly 3, surfaced right below the lab! It was impossible to see them but the deep sound of their blows was incredible! We could feel them shaking our bodies like little earthquakes. We were wondering: “why don’t they come that close during the day?” One hour later, a humpback started to sing on our local hydrophone. At 8:42pm, 2 other humpbacks stole the show in Johnstone Strait and performed a beautiful duet until 10pm.  OrcaLab 10 Nov 2019 06:31:54 PST Distant calls audible. The A34's are back in the strait. We are currently hearing them midrange on at Cracroft Point with some echoing to RObson Bight. There is also the occasional Humpback call on our local hydrophone and a short time ago some pacific white sided dolphins as well. A busy morning.  Megan  10 Nov 2019 06:08:33 PST After a spell of silence, amongst some bad boat noise we once again have a Humpback sining on our local hydrophone.  Megan  10 Nov 2019 03:17:57 PST

Superb sounds!! A beautiful recital from a humpback whale on our close hydrophone.  Jeremie 09 Nov 2019 18:51:48 PST Distant calls audible. Orca on camera at Cracroft Point ! A male or possibly a sprouter is heading east, in line with Kaikash Creek mid channel. Jeremie 09 Nov 2019 14:31:02 PST Watch humpbacks feeding frenzy on OL cam! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Claire 09 Nov 2019 13:43:43 PST Orcas near mics. Watch the A34s in Johnstone Strait on our CP camera! https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/ Claire 09 Nov 2019 10:17:06 PST Orcas near mics. After 2.5 hours of silence, the A34s are back on our Cracroft Point hydrophone! Claire 09 Nov 2019 10:08:49 PST Orcas near mics. The A34s are back on our hydrophones! Listen to them calling in Johnstone Strait.  Claire 09 Nov 2019 07:01:35 PST Superb sounds!! Listen to this lovely humpback song near the Robson Bight Reserve! Claire 09 Nov 2019 04:04:02 PST