Tuesday, 10 May 2022

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic Whale Watching tours. The premium tours have been cancelled due to unfavourable weather conditions. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00

 COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised.

Report from Eldey: A northerly wind and a relatively high swell made for a true Icelandic adventure today. We saw a blow of a humpback whale before it went for a longer dive, and then found the whale a few hundred meters away from us going towards an area with many seabirds. The whale at first surfaced a bit irregularly, but later came up very often and close to our boat. It was incredible to see the bright white pectoral fins of the whale as it approached the water surface. After some time we left this whale alone to explore different areas and we were able to find a different individual. We didn't have much time to check this humpback out, but it was very nice to see its large blow a few times before we headed back to Reykjavik, most of us happy to get back into the warm saloon. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: The swell had actually reduced a little this afternoon, contrary to what we were expecting from the forecast. As we headed out in search of the humpbacks we´d seen this morning, we came across lots of flocks of birds. This was a good sign as lots of birds also often means there´s lots of fish which will likely attract the whales and dolphins too. We even able to watch a couple of skuas chasing and bullying other birds out of their lunch. Not long after that, we spotted our first blow! A humpback whale! At first this individual was a little tricky to follow but soon it came up very close to the boat, surfacing many times all around the boat only a few meters away! We were able to see the white pectoral fins through the water really clearly and were then joined by a pod of 6 or 7 harbour porpoises. The porpoises also stuck around the boat and surfaced around us a lot which was quite unusual for this species, but amazing to see! Once other boats started to join us we continued with our tour and were able to see another humpback in the distance, but this individual was a little more elusive and didn´t want to get too close to us. We left it alone and headed back to Reykjavik in the sun.

- Emily Erskine

Atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, black-backed gull, black-headed gull, herring gull, glaucus gull, arctic tern, eider duck, black guillemot, common guillemot, European shag, Arctic skua