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Today was a truly special day in Faxaflói bay! We were lucky enough to encounter all four main species, in addition to seeing a curious harbour seal, and to our surprise, even a BASKING SHARK!
Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the ocean and used to be a fairly regular sight for us during late summer, but in the last 5+ years, sightings have become less frequent in our area.
Despite their large size and intimidating name, basking sharks are actually completely harmless. They feed by slowly swimming at the surface with their mouths wide open, filtering plankton and small crustaceans from the water as it passes through their gill rakers.
A wonderful encounter, not soon forgotten for the whole Elding team. We hope to see these giants return to the area in larger numbers!
Read about this unique encounter in our Whale Diary.
We are seeing more of these over the last couple of years as the water temperatures rise. They get their name by the way they are moving very close to the water surface (basking in the sun) however they are a plankton feeder and this is where the food is.