Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the old harbor in Reykjavík today. The sea is quite calm today and the wind as well. So make sure you are booked on the next whale watching tour today.
Tour at 19:00
Report from Elding: It was so calm conditions with no wind and a flat sea surface. These evening tours are always special when we are lucky with the weather. Also this tour saw many harbour porpoises in the calm sea, several pods of a total of 15-20 individuals. First larger cetacean to be seen was a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins. The slowly moved around us and swam under the boat on two occasions. We all could have a great look at them. Out in the bay we encountered 2 minke whales. The first one surfaced four times and then went for a deeper dive not to be seen again. With the second minke we could stay a while and get very good views. At the same time two harbour seals swam around the boat. A sight that was not so pleasant was that of the whaling vessel passing us by closely after being out in the bay most likely hunting minke whales. Only in Iceland you can have a whale watching boat and a whaling vessel passing by on so short distances... Choose whale friendly restaurants! We had one more minke whale surface in a great distance and more porpoises on the way back to harbour. Over and out!
- Marcus Bergström
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The sea conditions were only getting better through out the day so it was perfect for spotting wildlife. The two minke whales that were seen on previous tours close to Reykjavík were seen again on this tour. They were again easy to follow and get a good look at. When we headed further out we found 3 pods of harbour porpoises with 12-15 individuals over all. We soon got a call from another whale watching boats about a couple of dolphins. When we got to there we saw that these were a mother and a calf white beaked dolphins traveling together. We only spent a short time with these dolphins but still got good looks of them. On our way back we found 4 other white beaked dolphins! These were really nice dolphins that came more frequently up and we got great looks of them when they swam around our boat and even went under it a few times! Not a bad way to end a great tour.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: We started the tour with an early minke whale just outside the islands close to Reykjavik harbour. We followed the whale for a while ensuring we got a good view before heading further out. Because of the good conditions at sea we had a few encounters with 8-10 harbour porpoises on the tour. Further out we had more minke whales. One surfaced twice and didn't stay with us long. After that also this tour got to meet Humpie our known minke whale that is so easy to recognize due to the cut of dorsal fin on its back. We could stay a long time with humpie before starting traveling back. On our way back we had the highlight of the tour with a pod of 12-15 white-beaked dolphins, mostly consisting of mothers and young calves! We all fell in love with this pod of dolphins when the calves were playing around us doing small jumps out of the water. We got some cute pictures so make sure to check the pictures taken from todays tours! Over and out!
- Marcus Bergström
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The weather had not changed much so it was still fairly calm but with an rolling under swell that rocked our boat gently up and down. Our first sighting on the tour was after only 20 minutes of sailing, it was a minke whale! It was not difficult to follow this minke and we had few opportunities to get photos with it and Reykjavik in the background as it was so close to land. While watching this minke we spotted another one in only 300 meters distance. It should have been easy for everyone to get a good look at it like the other minke. When we went further out on the bay we spotted 10-12 harbour porpoises in 2 pods, but we didn't spend much time following these small and cute animals. Far out we found 2 minke whales that traveled together, one of them we know under the name Humpie! It was difficult to leave these minke whales as it is not often that we see them traveling together in pairs so it was definitely a special sighting for us.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: We had good spotting conditions when we sailed out this morning because even though we had some swells the sea surface was very smooth. We were hopeful because the conditions were so good and, sure enough, it wasn't long until we spotted our first minke whale. It was quite the stinky minke and elusive as well but we were able to stay with it for a while so everyone got a good look at it. While we were watching the minke another one popped up on our 9 o'clock so we decided to try our luck with that one instead. It soon disappeared though but then we spotted a third minke whale of the tour. We stayed with it until it was time to head back to the harbour and on our way back we saw about 8-10 harbour porpoises. A nice tour with minke whales and harbour porpoises.
-Bryndís Ösp
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: We started the morning with overcast sky, full of clouds, and very flat sea, great conditions to spot some cetaceans. We also had a long gentle swell that made the boat rocked a bit. After 30 minutes of sail we came across the first minke whale of the tour. We could stay for a while with the animal and could take a good look at it swimming towards Reykjavik. Then a second minke showed up in the area, very close to the boat, so we had two individuals around the boat. Suddenly a third minke came at the surface just 20 meters far away from the boat. We decided to sailed out a bit more out. We spotted some dolphins from the distance which were jumping very high making huge splashes, some miles away. We tried to get closer but we lost their track. At the same time we saw another minke whale coming with the head out of the water. The way back was quiet and relax enjoying some seabirds around and we saw a group of harbour porpoise. Great way to start the morning!
- Alejandro García
Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, "blue fulmar", manx shearwater, arctic skua, great skua, lesser black-backed gull, kittiwake, black-headed gull, herring gull, arctic tern, common guillemot, puffin, black guillemot, whimbrel and eider duck.
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