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Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Today we will be operating 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 | 9:00
- CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
Report from Eldey: With a pastel coloured sky and a bit of wind we went out in search of some cetaceans! We went to check the cruise ship harbour in search of an animal we´ve been seeing quite a lot recently and there it was, Flak the humpback whale just chilling in the shallows of Videy. It was coming up and down and being quite shy so we left it alone for him to have his breakfast and properly wake up. After 15 minutes of sailing a bit more we found a minke whale that was elusive at first but then it became friendly and even came very close to the boat when going for a dive. We continued our journey a bit more and we saw a pod of 4 to 5 harbour porpoises feeding under a flock of birds and then we got back to Flak to see him do those amazing fluke dives we so much like to see and photograph. Unfortunately our time was up and the captain turned the ship back to port.
-Pedro Teixeira
CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 1300
Report from Eldey: Thankfully the wind had calmed down this afternoon which was nice as we headed out. Very quickly we found Flak the humpback whale. At the same time as spotting the whale we also saw a harbour seal appear, it was bottling. It then disappeared so our sole focus was on Flak. The whale was feeding, coming up to the surface very fast and making some splashes. As we started to leave they even turned on their side and we could see half the fluke sticking out. We travelled around the islands off the coast a bit and found a harbour porpoise. We got to see if surface many times as it splash away from us. On our way back we saw Flak again, we saw many fluke dives as they were now a bit further out.
- Rob Hyman
Bird species seen today include:
Black legged kittiwake, black headed gull, eider duck, black backed gull, glaucous gull, common guillemot, black guillemot, razorbill
Wildlife seen on today's tours:
The Humpback Whale is quite spectacular undergoing the longest migration of any mammal (5176miles/8334km one way), attracting females by singing to them and of course their energetic nature. On many occasions humpbacks have been seen breaching, tail slapping, fin slapping, blowing bubbles and spy hopping just to mention a few. The humpback is also one of the larger whales we encounter
The Harbour Porpoise is the smallest and most abundant cetacean around Iceland. They are usually shy but occasionally they come and play around the boats. They can be relatively hard to spot from a distance due to their size and their abundance depends entirely on the food availability of our shores since they are opportunistic feeders.
Seals and Sea lions are collectively called Pinnipeds. Harbour Seals are the most abundant in Iceland and are frequently encountered on Akurey (puffin colony). There has been 7 species of seals recorded in Icelandic waters but only two of these species breed here; the Harbour Seal and Grey Seal.