Status: RUNNING
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The weather only got better, unfortunately clouds were coming in and the skies became overcast but sun glasses still came in use with a strong glare on the water. The sea was like a mirror, which is always a bonus in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was not long offshore until we spotted a small pod of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins. We had a quick look but decided to head further out to where the whales were on the morning tour. However, just as we were increasing our speed we noticed a black fluke rising above the surface abut 700 meters from us. A humpback whale coming in our direction so we slowed again and after about 8 minutes it surfaced just 150 meters from us. We followed it for a while for about another 4 sequences, as it lifted its fluke then waiting another 7-8 minutes for it to surface again. Other whale watching boats came then so we left and searched more in the bay. We found a small pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins, which after 10 minutes, more and more showed up and in the end we finished with a pod of 15-20 that were traveling and then started feeding. You could see the dolphins suddenly work together to school the fish. It was just amazing to watch these wild animals work together. We headed home then with the beautiful scenery to enjoy on our way.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: The good weather continues in the Southwest of Iceland, the sea looked like a mirror this morning. After only about 15 min we encountered a group of probably around 50 white-beaked dolphins. It was difficult to estimate their number because they were spread out over a large area, we could see this beautiful dolphin species all around us. We sailed with them for a while on our way further out and in these great sea conditions we were able to follow them with our eyes for a long time. After leaving the dolphins to themselves, we saw around two hundreds of harbour porpoises in the Bay. There were some smaller and some bigger groups of these cute animals and a lot more very scattered - the highest number of porpoises I have seen on a single tour. It took a long time for us to find a larger animal this morning, but finally we saw a humpback whale! Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend with it but we got a good look at it during three surface sequences and got a nice fluke-up in the end as well. Further in the distance, we also saw a minke whale coming up twice, but I think only a few passengers were looking in the right direction at the right time to see it. On our way back we encountered all the harbour porpoises again, and also saw the white-beaked dolphins again closer to Reykjavík.
- Hanna Michel
Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern fulmar, blue fulmar, kittiwake, eider ducks, brent geese, common guillemots, great cormorant, northern gannet, red-throated diver, oystercatcher, black-headed gulls and puffins.
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