Thursday, 22 May 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Luckily, the winds had calmed as we headed out on a sunlit Faxaflói. After having sailed for around 40 minutes, we spotted the first pod of white-beaked dolphins. They were swimming along the Reyjkanes peninsula and seemed to be after something, presumably feeding, as they changed their course and direction a lot. After we left the dolphins, we headed further out and soon found a minke whale that appeard to be resting, swimming slowly along and breathing heavily as it surfaced. We shut our engines off for a while to enjoy the sightings and the blow sound the minke made and meanwhile, our researchers Letizia, John and Marianne used to opportunity to make some temperature-, depth- and salinity measurements of the ocean. As we headed further out, another minke whale appeared but was not surfacing too frequently. Through out the tour, harbour porpoises were always close by and this was definately their day. Fantastic day!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up a bit when we started our afternoon tour, but we still sailed out into the bay accompanied by the sun. It did not even take an hour until we spotted all three of our most common species: white-beaked dolphins, minke whales and harbour porpoises! We found the dolphins first and got some very nice looks at this first pod (of 3 individuals) as they were surfacing next to our boat. With more dolphins in the distance we headed a bit further and took a look at a few different minke whales (2-3). They were a bit elusive, so we headed further out into the bay all the way spotting harbour porpoises here and there. The bay was so full of life that we had a hard time deciding whether to look at some more dolphins (a pod of at least 7-10 individuals) and some other minke whales. So we moved around the area getting nice looks at both species and also some more harbour porpoises. The large group of dolphins surfaced around our boat for an extended period of time and right before we started heading in we were seen off by a leaping dolphin! A great ending to an incredible trip!

- Linda

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sea was like a mirror as we headed out on the Faxaflói bay this morning. It was absolutely calm and the sun was shining. The stunning visibility allowed us an amazing look at the glacier Snæfellsjökull and we found some cetaceans right away. First we spotted harbour porpoises that would accompany us throughout the tour since there were hundreds of them in the bay, spread over quite a large area. After a while, we started seeing minke whales as well. There were about 8 to 10 of those surfacing all around us, probably feeding, as we had northen gannets diving frequently. Before heading back, we decided to look for some white-beaked dolphins that we found and got some very nice looks at. All in all an amazing wildlife experience in excellent conditions this morning.

-Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on today's tours include: Northern gannets, puffins, manx shearwaters, fulmars, common guillemots, kittiwakes, black backed gulls, arctic terns, arctic skuas.