MONDAY, 22 JUNE 2015

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The  weather  and sea conditions  were absolutely perfect for whale spotting this evening. Soon after we left the harbor we got news from another whale watching boat that they had seen two humpback whales! We of course went to have a look at them and when we arrived we saw it was a female and a calf. They were traveling slowly towards Reykjavik. The calf surfaced more often then its mother and they usually stayed very close to the surface so we were often able to follow their movement underwater. It was just amazing following them in the beautiful weather that we had on the tour, we could really hear every breath they took because there was absolutely no wind and we were always able to keep short distance with them. after wonderful time with the humpbacks we went again further out on the bay. We saw so many minke whales that it was difficult to count them all, at least 8-9 over the whole tour. Most of them we only watched from a long distance but two minke whales we got to follow for at least 15 minutes. These two minkes were traveling together and surfaced often very close to each other and sometimes at the same time. This was defiantly one of the best midnight tour of the season.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We were really excited to get back out and see some whales as we had a great previous tour. We spotted some white-beaked dolphins pretty early on and they were staying close to the boat. Their behavior wasn't like on the previous tour when they were leaping but everybody got a good look at them. We went further out and scanned for some minke whales. After some while of scanning we spotted one in a kilometer distance so we turned the boat around and headed towards the minke whale. When we arrived in the area that we had spotted the minke we found 4 minke whales in the same area within 300 meters of the boat. One of them had some pretty amazing behavior as he was leaping an made a lot of splashes really close to the boat. At one time we had at least 6 minke whales within 600 meters all around the boat and everybody got a good look at them. We stayed with these minke whales till the end of the tour. When we were heading back we spotted another pod of white-beaked dolphins just in front of us quite close to the harbour. This tour was just amazing and we were really happy with the minkes this time.

-Katrín Björnsdóttir

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: In the afternoon we went out with our boat looking to find any of the many cetaceans seen in the morning. The waters in Faxaflói bay seemed rather calm, this made it easier to spot animals even further away. But on this very amazing whale watching tour we didn't need to look far to find marine mammals. Shortly after we arrived in the area where we were traveling towards a large amount of white-  beaked dolphins were sighted. After enjoying those incredible animals for a while we went on looking for different cetaceans. Our search was cut short by a minke whale appearing not far off from the boat. The rest of the tour was basically repeating itself after this encounter, every time we started looking for different animals we spotted either a big pod of dolphins or a minke whale. Our luck continued when we found two minke whales which seemed to be feeding together, giving us the opportunity for some rather unique pictures, since they were surfacing together most of the time. In the end it was very hard to tell how many individual animals we actually encountered, since we were circling the same area for a while and even spotting additional animals on our way back to the harbour. Estimating 4-6 minke whales and between 20-30 white- beaked dolphins.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out in good conditions but the wind had picked up a bit from this morning. It didn't take long until we spotted dolphins in the distance jumping so we headed that way. After maybe 30 minutes we had 3 pods, maybe 18 individuals of white-beaked dolphins jumping and leaping near the boat. It was really amazing to see the behavior of these dolphins, they were jumping a lot and some did some invert leaping as they jumped into the air and landed on their backs. Everybody got a good look at them and we were really happy to see this behavior of the animals. We didn't want to take our eyes of the dolphins and by the end the sun was shining and the wind had calmed down, it was really beautiful. After a while we decided to go on and look for some minke whales. We spotted a few minke whales, maybe 3 individuals but they weren't really photo-friendly so we did not get a good look at them. But we were really happy with this tour, the dolphins were great and hopefully everybody went home happy.

-Katrín Björnsdóttir

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: What an incredible day, the sea was smooth but a misty sky that did hide much of the landscape but evrybody didn't care as the bay was full of life. A mecca of seabirds sized from puffins to gannets, we also saw at least 20 plus minke whales, a couple that we could even indentify, Háski (see since 2013) and Bambi (seen since 2008). They were surfacing in all directions at various distances. The sea conditions were so calm that you could see them sufacing miles away. We also got a wonderful encounter on white-beaked dolphins, at least 7-8 animals and a pod of harbour porpoises that increased our happiness on this awesome day. 

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This day started with a very great tour ! The sea could not possibly be smoother, and there was almost no wind. The fog hiding the landscape could not spoil these perfect conditions. Quickly we encountered 3 minke whales resting, traveling slowly and surfacing a lot. After taking a good look at them, we came across a group of 3 - 4 harbour porpoises, going up and down, probably sleeping. After a while, we found a pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins, displaying a lot of jump and leaps, passing under the boat, and surfacing very close to us. A minke whale even joined the party for a while ! We eventually ran out of time and had to head back to Reykjavik, with a lot of nice memories in mind.  

- Guillaume Calcagni

Bird species seen on today's tour include: arctic terns, puffins, common guillemots, black-backed seagulls, northern fulmars, northern gannets, razorbills, arctic skuas, eider ducks, storm petrel.