Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Today we will be operating our Classic Whale Watching on our lovely vessel Eldey at 9:00, 13:00, 17:00, 20:30 and our just as lovely catamaran Hafsúlan at 11:00, 15:00. Our Premium Whale Watching tour will operate on Þruma I-V at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 20:00

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 20:30
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 20:00

Report from Eldey: Our first tour of the day can be summarized into one word: Amazing!! We started the tour with a light but cold rain, that made most of the clients prefer being inside the ship, with the cozy heating and some hot drinks on our onboard bar. But after an hour of searching, we spotted our first whale, a humpback whale. We rapidly realized that we were not among a single humpback, but 4 humpback whales. Few minutes after, we noticed multiple minke whales surfacing in the same area, with some surfacing far in the horizon, and others less than 10 meters from the humpbacks. If this spectacle wasn't good enough already, a group of around 15 white-beaked dolphins appeared and started swimming by the sides of the humpback. Throughout this period, the humpbacks showed incredible behaviours of socializations, like tail-slapping, pectoral slapping, and swimming together in a group of 3. Truly, this was a tour that would make a National Geographic film crew jealous!

- Ricardo Mendes

Report from Hafsulan: We set off this morning enjoying the rain and cloudy sky. There was a bit of swell but nothing too bad so everyone was feeling good. After sailing for not too long we then saw a huge splash in front of us from a humpback whale breaching! As we got closer it did it again! Once we arrived to the area we realised there were 2 humpbacks. One of these had 5-6 white beaked dolphins jumping all over them, clearly annoying the humpback. As after this it displayed almost every behaviour possible it was rolling, pec slapping, tail slapping, peduncle throwing and breaching! It was such a spectacle. We also saw both whales go for many fluke dives. In this area we also saw 7-8 minke whales surfacing a lot all around, enjoying the feast too. After having the best tour, we started to head home and got to see another cetacean. About 5 harbour porpoises were surfacing really regularly quite close to our. This topped it off meaning we saw all 4 common species which was really special.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Eldey: After an amazing morning, we had high expectations for the afternoon! The sea was still a bit choppy, but we forgot about any sea conditions when we spotted our first blow. By the size of it, we knew we had something big ahead of us. When we got there, we could confirm that it belonged to a humpback whale, but it wasn't alone! Quite close to it, a minke whale was also passing by, this one closer to us. We also saw another blow from a humpback not too far from us, and as the first one was taking a while under the surface, we decided to check it out. Before we got to it, we saw it slapping the pectoral fin and also about 10 white-beaked dolphins closer to us! The whale and the dolphins were on their way to a big flock of birds, that were feeding like crazy. So we also continued our way to the same direction. What. A. Show. Every summer we wait to see the most beautiful chaos in the bay: birds screaming and plunge diving, a humpback whale in the middle, dolphins all over the place... Wow! The dolphins also seemed to multiply, and we could see about 30 of them all around and amongst the bird chaos, with very fast movements and extremely close to the whale. We stayed there watching them in silence, only our gasps and cameras could make a sound. We also noticed another blow in the distance but we decided to keep with this group, until we realized it was time to go home. Beautiful!

- Milla Brandao

Report from Elding: The rain had now stopped and it was brighter so we set off nice and happy ready for some more whales. After sailing a bit we saw some splashes ahead from 20 scattered excited, jumping white beaked dolphins. They were really social today. Closer to some of the dolphins a big blow went off from a humpback whale. We then waited a few minutes whilst the humpback dived. It then came up giving us a really good view of it as it came so close to the back of our ship. In this area there were also many birds and 2 minkes feeding. Some more dolphins also joined the party and a bit further away a second humpback was surfacing too. After a great tour seeing so many cetaceans we then headed home very happy. 

- Maria Ernesto

Report from Eldey: We really cannot get enough of whales, and we were ready to see them once more on one of our last tours of the day. It wasn't raining anymore, although the sea was still a bit choppy. But this tour, like the previous ones, didn't disappointed us: we spotted first a minke whale that was in the same area of a humpback whale, and we couldn't be happier! Not far from there, we already could see the sharp and fast dorsal fins of white-beaked dolphins cutting the surface and telling us we for sure found the spot! There were about 50 dolphins, all around. Some of them feeding, some speeding up, and others jumping very high and having fun! All of a sudden, we realized that 2 more humpback whales were amongst the birds and dolphins, feeding as well. One of them spy-hopped, checking the area and we got pretty excited. A couple of minutes later, they were lunge feeding and rolling at the surface, and even were in sync when went both went for a deep dive without showing the fluke. The dolphins continued to perform a show all around, and we enjoyed and took our time in this productive area, noticing another 2 minkes in front of us, quite close. We started coming back home, but still spotted 2 harbour porpoises on the way. We were very happy with all the wildlife all around that Faxaflói had to offer for us today!

- Ricardo Mendes

Report from Elding: We set sail this evening with calm seas and cloudy, but almost windstill skies. It did not take us too long before we met our first cetacean of the evening; some friendly harbour porpoises came to say hello, but disappeared rather quickly after. So we sailed on, driven by this first sighting. A little while later, we spotted 2 minke whales, almost side by side, surfacing right in front of us. We were then quickly joined by a bunch of white beaked dolphins as well. These amazing ocean acrobats gave us quite the show, bowriding and jumping out of the water many times! We quickly realized we found quite the hotspot as we ended up being surrounded by 30-40 Dolphins and 6-8 minke whales. The evening got even better when we spotted a humpback whale in the distance. We got multiple beautiful looks at its fluke when it dove down and then we moved on towards a second humpback, which appeared a few hundred meters behind us. As we were approaching we could even see it breach in the distance! After some time with this individual, it was time to head back into port, but right as we set off, this whale breached twice in a row!! It then even continued to wave its pectoral fin out of the water as if it meant to wave us goodbye, ending our evening in the best way possible.

- Milan Vansteelandt

Atlantic puffin, Northern gannet, common and black guillemot, common gull, lesser black-backed gull, great black-backed gull, herring gull, Northern fulmar