Saturday, 22 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 | 09:00, 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: It was very cloudy with quite a bit of rain in the air too. But the sea was pretty calm making for a nice sail out. On our way to the hot spot of the last few days we managed to get a couple quick looks at 2 harbour porpoises. They both only surfaced a few times but one was pretty close making it easier to see. Then we started to arrive to an area with a lot of birds including feeding Northern gannets and Arctic terns. We now started to spot a lot more cetacean activity. On both sides of the boat we could see a minke whale but they didn't surface too much. We could also see some white beaked dolphins. On our left was a pod of about 5 individuals and on the right we had a jumping pod of about the same size. But we carried on as we had seen a big blow ahead. This blow then disappeared. In the meantime we had 6 dolphins come much closer to us, they appeared to be resting. 2 more minkes then also appeared. Then finally we had found the owner of the blow. It was from a resting humpback whale. This individual stayed very close to the surface for this entire sighting we could almost always see it through the water. It was great to see this huge animal so peaceful. We then headed back after a really nice tour seeing all 4 common species.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Hafsulan: Sailing out in the rainy bay this morning, we knew that ahead of us were some potential great sightings, which we now had to find. Quite quickly, we came across numerous flocks of Northern gannets, which are often good omen for presence of fish in the surroundings. This treated us with a first shy sighting of a minke whale passing by a couple of times close o us, followed by 2 more in the same area. But we soon noticed several big splashes in the distance; as we got closer, 3 pods of 25 to 30 dolphins were happily feeding, many of which were jumping around and turning mid-air, for everybody´s best enjoyment. Enjoying their presence mindlessly, we almost didn't notice that a humpback whale appeared meters from our boat ! This individual stayed in the same zone throughout our tour, but behaved in a strange manner, coming up close to the surface to breathe once and going back under without ever fluke diving, very slowly. Roaming around it, we noticed several pods of about 20 dolphins behaving in similar manners. These were evidently feeding on the same spot and seemingly interacted well with each other, as each surfacing of the humpback was accompanied with several dolphins. We finally had to head home, leaving these eerie whales to their activities, and all of us well entertained. 

- Alex Paumier

We had a little bit of rain on the way out but the sea was very calm and the conditions were still good to find cetaceans. We soon spotted our first minke whale that came up right next to our boat all of the sudden. It came up one more time but was quite elusive so we decided to continue our search further out. After a while we found about 5 more minke whales that were supposedly feeding accompanied by at least 5 harbour porpoises. We could stay with them for a while and they kept coming up very close to our boat. We did not want to disturb them for too long and decided to check out a different area. We soon spotted splashes that turned out to be caused by white beaked dolphins that seemed to be feeding as well. We encountered about 4 pods of different sizes and at some points they were swimming right next to and in front of our boat. That was a very good sighting and everybody was able to enjoy the company. 

-Lasse Roggenkamp

Report from Hafsulan : Our afternoon tour started under a cloudy threatening sky and light rain as we ventured into Faxafloi bay. Sailing on quiet seas, we quickly found our first minke whale, traveling in the distance. We soon spotted a second and a third one, this time coming closer to our boat. They eventually disappeared from our sight and we continued our journey to quickly find a large pod of white-beaked dolphins. As we slowly approached, about half of the pod decided to join us and play around the boat, to great joy of our passengers that could appreciate a close look at them all. To our surprise, a humpback whale breached in the distance, right in front of our boat. We headed to its direction to find two other minke whales, but no sign of the humpback we had seen jumping. We observed the two minkes surfacing regularly, sometimes right in front of our boat, until it was finally time to head back to the harbor. 
- Olivia Garcia

Report from Eldey - this evening we sailed out in light rain, nothing that can stop us. After some time we spotted a first pod of 5-8 white-beaked dolphins however the animals were traveling fast so we decided to keep sailing to the productive spot we know of. On the way we found an area with 3 minke whales feeding, one of them coming very close to the boat before disappearing. Once we reached the area where we been successful today we spotted many more white-beaked dolphins, over 50 individuals actively feeding. As we watched the dolphins, suddenly a humpback whale appeared less than 50m away from the boat! We saw it a few more times before we needed to head back home.

-Aleksandra Lechwar

Atlantic puffin, black and common guillemot, Northern gannet, black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, black-legged kittiwake, common gull, Northern fulmar, Arctic skua, Great skua