Saturday, 21 November 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: This is why we love going out from Grindavík! A low setting sun and some long rolling swells were the conditions on todays tour. Just outside the harbour we came across 3 large pods of harbour porpoises, each pod contained at least 10-15 individuals. The porpoises seemed to be traveling or maybe they were fleeing from what came next... A tall dark dorsal fin broke the surface and another and another. ORCAS! We had finally a pod of orcas on our tour, we have been waiting for these beautiful animals that we often see when we go out from Grindavík. This pod contained at least 7-8 individuals both males and females. We saw at least 3 large males and 3 females and a younger individual. They were scattered over a large area therefor it is difficult to exactly determent the number of individuals but we had one big male and a female really close to the boat. We even got to witness something very rare, mating orcas. It was difficult leaving the orcas but we continued the tour to search for the humpbacks that we have been seeing the last couple of days. No humpbacks today but that didn't do so much when we got such an amazing encounter with the "wolves of the sea" or orcas as we call them. Check the diary for pictures! We are expecting some rough weather the next coming days so our boat Eldey has been moved to Reykjavík again where we will depart tomorrow.

- Marcus Bergström

Bird species seen on todays tour include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, Iceland gull, glaucous gull, greater black-backed gull, kittiwake, black-headed gull, great northern diver and eider duck.