Friday, 23 September 2022

​​​​​​Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00

Report from Eldey: We left the harbour with cloudy skies and a forecast of swell but the weather conditions were better than expected and we had good visibility. It took us some time to spot the first sign of a whale; a big splash! This was a minke whale that probably breached once or lunge feed with incredible force because the splashes were well visible from very far. We made our way there and found some sea birds on the surface waiting together with us. Then finally a minke whale came up out of the water in front of our boat. This one was not alone, it had some companions, feeding as well. So the area was inhabited by at least 3 minkes. After staying with these animals for some time we saw more splashes further away and made our way there. This turned out to be an area with at least 4 or 5 other minke whales and another species; a small pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins! These animals came very close to us, bow riding and coming up at both sides of the boat multiple times, while following us. Such curious animals. While admiring these dolphins we spotted some more minkes in the distance and one even came again quite close to us. One of the minkes we saw had a very dull looking dorsal fin so we suspect that might have been Humpy the minke whale ♥

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Eldey: The sky was overcast, the wind moderate and the swell high. We set out to sail out into the bay and after about an hour out we were tipped of by one of the other boats about a humpback whale. We approached the area and saw a blow! This humpback was known to us, it was Mariupol. a known whale in this bay. We watched him for quite some time and watched him dive 3 times and fluke up 2 times before leaving. There was to many boats and we did not want to disturb this nice humpback. Next up we had a couple of minke whales that surfaced in front of our boat, one of them even feeding. Minkes were surfacing here and there, in total we probably around 6-7 individuals. We had the info about white-beaked dolphins near by but we could not find them. We left and headed back to Reykjavik watching the birds and talking about conservation. 

- Miquel the whale man

Manx shearwater, Northern gannet, northern fulmar, Black legged kittiwake, common guillemot