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Tuesday, 9 January 2024
Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 13:00 Classic Whale Watching tour. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land.
- CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 1300
Report from Eldey: It was very windy as we headed out to look for some more fun animals :) On our way we had a quick look at a harbour porpoise that jumped very high out of the water. We continued our journey and saw some grey seals, in total we saw 6-7 including some that came really close to investigate our boat and give us some side eye. We then saw a big blow up ahead after nearly an hour of searching. We saw Ekki the humpback whale. We followed them for a bit as they came up a lot and showed us many arched backs before diving as they always do hence the name, Ekki. As other boats then came to the area we went for a sail to see if we could find anything else. Unfortunately we didn't so we went to head back to Ekki who had moved much closer to the land now. We were in for a huge surprise as at first they continued to just arch their back for dives but then they started to show the fluke! As they are a young humpback maybe they have now developed enough and learnt how to do it. It was really cool to be there to see this and the many more fluke dives that followed. On our way back we got another surprise as we saw Calamity, another humpback! They have also been around these islands a lot recently but we thought maybe they have gone. Thankfully we were wrong and we got to see this humpback also show their fluke lots very close to us.
- Rob Hyman
Birds seen today include:
Razorbill, common guillemot, black backed gull, Northern fulmar, Great cormorant, eider duck and other gulls. Read more about our birds here.
Wildlife seen today:
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.
Grey seals are generally distinguished from harbour seal by their straight head and fewer spots. Males are darker and larger than the females who tend to be a silver, grey or brown in color. Grey seals and harbour seals are the only seals that have been reported breeding in Icelandic waters.
Book here:
This is the original whale watching tour from Reykjavík! Join our highly enthusiastic and experienced team in the search for whales, dolphins and birds of Faxaflói bay! Most common wildlife encountered are humpbacks, minkes, dolphins and porpoises.
