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

No calls but orcas nearby We had a lovely surprise this afternoon - the A42s arrived back from their sojourn in Georgia Strait. For the past several years this has been their pattern and we we just beginning to imagine that they would come back sometime soon. They were just a little earlier than last year! Jared Towers went out and found them as expected heading west in Johnstone Strait. They had young A94 with them still. A94 is part of the A64s (A4 pod).  Helena 09 Mar 2021 22:12:13 PST

Superb sounds!! Beautiful Bigg's orca calls in Blackfish Sound. OrcaLab 27 Feb 2021 13:09:13 PST

Performing maintenance We are still experiencing power issues at one of our sites. Unfortunately this means we have loss the ability to share the audio and video streams. The crew at Hanson Island have done everything they can. Fortunately help is on the way and we hope to be back soon with a better, stronger more stable signal. Thank you for your patience.  Helena 02 Feb 2021 18:27:46 PST

No orcas present. Thanks to the sun, our Parson link is back, and we're streaming audio again!   Paul 30 Jan 2021 13:28:29 PST

Performing maintenance Hello everyone! Our network is hanging on by a thread, and will likely go down later today unless we're able to get to Parson Island and run the generator we've installed to keep things running until new batteries get here. Wind is calming in Blackney, so it might be possible. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, hope you're all doing well, and staying safe! Paul 29 Jan 2021 14:08:58 PST

Performing maintenance Good morning everyone! We lost our network again early this morning, so are unable to stream live audio. Weather is too bad today to work on the problem, but tomorrow should be better. Apologies for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience. Stay safe in the meantime, please! OrcaLab 26 Jan 2021 10:33:02 PST

Performing maintenance Hi everyone, the Parson Island link in our network will go down soon, meaning that we will lose our internet connection at the Lab, so won't be able to stream audio or video.. We'll be back as soon as possible. Meanwhile take good care, please, and stay safe! Paul 24 Jan 2021 16:46:47 PST