Friday, 14 August 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: Though the first tours were very similar to each other this once would prove to be very different and really show how nature can change massively within hours. It took us an incredibly long time to reach any animals on this tour but after around 90 minutes we saw huge splashes in the distance that belonged to some very active white-beaked dolphins. These were perfect dolphins that spent around 30 minutes straight interacting with the boat, if they weren´t interacting they were leaping or slapping their tails, bodies and heads against the water. This was a true display of how spectacular dolphins can be. It was made all the better by the fact that among the 8 dolphins there were 3 young ones too!

- Jack Ball

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On this tour we went into the same area as this morning and, luckily, the wind had calmed down a bit making the sea conditions a lot better. We started heading towards an area with a humpback whale; however, on the way there we spotted a minke whale. As we were following this individual, we figured that it was actually two minke whales together again, so it might be the same pair that we had seen on the 10:00 tour. We followed them a while and then searched for the humpback whale. After s short while we spotted a couple of big blows and finally got closer to this humpback whale that we than identified as "Nettie", the humpback that is entangled in a fishing net. It surfaced a few times right next to us and rolled on its side and slapped with it's pectoral fins on the water surface. Thanks to Nettie and the minke pair an amazing tour! 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: This tour gave us another three species to look at but in a different order this time. We started with the white-beaked dolphins this time. Two pods of 3 and 5 dolphins. They were very comfortable around us and were travelling around the boat showing off their black and white bodies at the surface. We moved on to find somethnig bigger and found an area with a humpback whale and a pair of minke whales which is very unusual to see. The humpback was very nice as it was lifting the tail high into the air when it was diving and the minke whales were travelling side by side through the area. A real feast for the eyes in this small area. Yet another three species tour!

- Jack Ball

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On this windy and rainy morning we made our way in to Faxaflói towards an area where other boats had already spotted a few cetaceans. We headed towards our sister boat Eldey and spent a while with a humpback whale as Eldey was leaving. This individual was pretty easy-going and just traveling slowly next to us showing us a few nice fluke ups. While watching the humpback we spotted a minke whale further in the distance. So we decided to spent a little longer with the humpback before we left it to to get a closer look at the minke whale. However, we did not only see one but two minke whales traveling together. It's really special to see that since minke whales are usually solitary animals. So we followed them a while and could see them surfing the waves before we headed back home. 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The weather really calmed down from previous days and for the first time in a while we had a flat sea! This made spotting animals a lot easier. Our first sighting was of an old friend, the minke whale known as Humpie. This is a whale we have seen frequently for many years. After watching this whale we went to watch a second minke also. We eventually moved on from the minkes to find something else and found a humpback whale. This was a whale known as þröstur and was always lifting the tail high into the air and was swimming near us clearly very comfortable with the boat. We´ve been seeing this whale regularly for a few months and we hope to see more of him in the future. At the end of the tour we also found a pod of white-beaked dolphins to complete the three species tour.

- Jack Ball

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern fulmars, northern gannets, kittiwakes, Atlantic puffins, common guillemots, lesser black-backed gulls and manx shearwaters.