Friday, 22 July 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 14:00 and 16:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 20:30 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

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 sanitizer is advised. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Eldey: We left the port in calm seas and no wind. Soon after we already found our first whale: a humpback whale! This one was a very fast one, travelling with great speed into the bay. We followed this individual for some time and then set of to find some more whales. And sure thing we also found some minke whales popping up left and right. After that we saw jet another humpback whale in a big flock of birds surrounded by white-beaked dolphins jumping around it. How amazing! After looking at these cool species interact with each other and some more minkes pop up every now and again the humpback whale fluked up and waved us goodbye. What a tour!

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Hafsulan: Amazing and rare tour that we got today during this 10am tour: As soon as we left the harbour, 1 humpback whale been spotted, travelling, very close to the coast. We stayed few minutes with the animal that came at some point very close to our boat. All passengers were able to see the white pectoral fins under the water. After leaving the humpback, we went a bit further into the bay to spot hopefully other animals. And we were far to be disappointed! We were definitely so amazed by the wildlife as more animals showed up close to our boat! We spotted first 1 minke whale, then 4 harbour porpoises together, travelling and appeared several time at the surface close to our boat. All the passengers could see them ! A bit further, a group of 5 white beaked dolphins came a bit closer to us but then started to travel away from us. At the same time of all these sightings, we saw another blow from 1 humpback whale! Another 1 humpback whale showed up too! The bay was full of life with huge group of birds flying around everywhere, with a mix of different species of gulls. artic terns, pufins, arctic skua, black guillemots... there was quite a lot of food ! Suddenly, the 2 humpbacks started to open their mouth widely to grap the food at the water surface ! We call this behaviour lunge feeding. The humpbacks showed this behaiour at leat 6 times in front of us, so close to the boat!!! Everyone looked so happy and blessed to see these majestic animals feeding in their natural habitat. At the same time, 7 minke whales were feeding in the area around the boat!

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Eldey: Normally I tell a story about what happened on trips in the order they happened in, however today´s trip had such nice weather and so many animals that I´m just going to list them here. We saw 2 lone humpback whales, spending very little time at the surface between dives for food. 2 pods of harbour porpoise with about 5 animals within each, shooting past the boat with 1 curious guy going right under our bow. 3 pods of white beaked dolphins graced us with their presence today, one with 12 individuals including 4 calves, another group with 6 with 2 juveniles, and the final group with 4 adults only. These groups joined together before seperating again multiple times, and aside from the group with 4 calves didn´t seem to care about us at all. Finally we saw 15-20 minke whales up close, maybe within 100m, and countless in the distance quickly surfacing for breathe between dives for food. I have never seen so much life in the bay. This is the first time I have seen all 4 of these species in one trip and I have never seen this many dolphins and minkes together in 1 place. The weather was fanstastic and the wildlife was awesome.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was incredible, constantly interchanging between light rain and bright sunshine, sometimes dark dynamic clouds provided the perfect photographic background for the birds that flew past, the sun shining on their wings. Our first sighting was a minke whale. We found many of them throughout the tour, over the afternoon we saw around 8-10 minke whales. Two of them were swimming quite close. And then the fun started to happen, as both the whales were open mouth lunge feeding together! We also saw a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins and another one at the distance of about 6 individuals. We got a nice look at them as they surfaced quite close, they seemed to be chasing their next meal. Some of them were swimming under us and there was a juvenile that jumped around the boat. A great encounter and the dolphins will always put a smile on your face. We also found a humpback whale, but it wasn't as fun though, we saw it surface peacefully before it dived and disappeared but at least it gave us one big raise of the fluke! We didn´t find the energetic humpbacks from the morning but that shows how unpredictable wildlife can be, and that´s just how we like it! We did get a short encounter with a pod of 5-7 chubby and curious harbour porpoises. On our way back home we enjoyed the scenery and we were lucky to witness a Fata Morgana. It was a wonderful day in the bay!

- Estel Sanchez

Report from Hafsulan: This evening was incredible. We sailed out on a pristine and calm sea, already seeing the golden sunlight which later turned orange and pink. About forty minutes in we start seeing minke whales dotted across the horizon and then suddenly a breaching humpback whale! We also saw 6 white beaked dolphins that were swimming next to the humpback whale. It breached three times and was incredibly close to the boat. After it went for a deeper dive it popped up on our left and now it was with two other humpback whales. One was slowly turning and showing us its belly and pectoral fins. They were all very calm and came very close to the boat, you could hear their blows and if you were in the front you may have even gotten a tiny bit wet from them! The dolphins stayed near the three whales as well and we would continuously see minke whales surrounding us. A truly magical tour.

- Melanie Magnan

Northern fulmar, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, great skua, Arctic skua, Arctic tern, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, Brünnich's guillemot, eider duck, herring gull, glaucous gull, black-legged kittiwake, northern gannet