Late in the afternoon of August 17th, 2023, almost all members of J, K, and L pods raced north in Haro Strait passing in front of Orcasound. The whales were grouped up and porpoising as we have rarely seen.

The Orcasound hydrophone recorded some 45 minutes of terrific vocals. Here is a little selection.

Even when a large ship passed the orca kept vocalizing.

Here is a slideshow of images taken from shore with a 400mm lens. The audio is about one minute of the passby about 20 minutes in.

We watched about 10 breeches as the whales passed. Here is one as a gif.

Finally, if you made it this far, here is a mp3 recording of the 45 minutes of vocals during this extraordinary event.