Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Unfortunately it was a little bit rainy on our evening tour - but most of our passengers weared an overall and could stay with it outside without becoming too wet. We saw a group of harbour porpoises again very close to the boat. They surfaced often and after a while we saw a minke whale in the distance and went to it. We saw the minke whale very often sometimes only 10 to 15 meters from the boat. We found another minke whale and also stayed with it a while. Then we went further in the bay but did not see anything else. Therefore on the way back we stopped at the minke whale we saw before and enjoyed it again.

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: This tour was incredible we saw at least 7-10 Minke Whales, most towards the end of the tour. The first Minke Whale we saw was even started rolling and lunge feeding. Behaviours you don´t get to see every day or even every week. It was mainly a minke tour but there were lots of guillemots and their chicks and other seabirds such as the ones listed below. We even got to see fishermen bringing up mackerel onto their boats with patches of bubbling mackerel all around us and them. Again a wonderful tour and the bonus was that it didn´t start to rain until we had seen everything and started to head home. whoo hoo.

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Also on our midday tour the sea was still very calm with only a little bit wind. We found a group of harbour porpoises at the beginning of our tour. We saw them very often and they swam around our boat. Then we saw a minke whale but it was a little bit illusive and we saw it only two or three times and then it disappeared. We found another group of harbour porpoises and we found another minke whale. Unfortunately also this whale we saw only a few times. At the very end of our tour we found a third minke whale and we were able to follow it a little bit. Through the whole tour we saw harbour porpoises around the boat and all together we saw more than 20 individuals.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: It was a beautiful morning to be out at sea, lots of wildlife and great weather. We sailed out on flat calm seas and the clouds looked so dynamic, perfect photography weather. We saw at least 3 Minke Whales on this tour and one we even saw lunge feeding (coming out of the sea with water pouring out of the mouth obviously full of fish) you could even see the ventral pleats under the whales body. There were Harbour Porpoises everywhere too, 20+ at least some far away and some surfacing really close. We even got to see a few Puffins which was nice as they start heading south this time of year. The seas were also bubbling with Mackerel. Lots happening out in the bay this morning.

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We started our morning tour with a visit of the island Engey and we were happy to see that still puffins were around. Then we went further in the bay and it took not long until we found a group of harbour porpoises. They were close to the boat and we saw them several times. Than we saw a minke whale in the distance and we sailed to this whale. We saw this minke whale very often and after some minutes we realised that this is not the only whale in this area. All in all we saw 6 to 8 minke whales on our tour. At the end of our tour we even saw a group of white-beaked dolphins. They came absolutely close to the boat. It was amazing to see three different species so well on one tour and on the way back everybody was simply happy.

Birds seen on todays tours include; Puffins, Guillemots, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Eider Ducks, Cormorants, Black-backed Gulls, Arctic Terns and Arctic Skuas.

Pictures taken by Megan Whittaker and Vilhjalmur Arnason