Wednesday, 3 July 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 Elding I at 11:00 and 15:00. Our Premium Whale Watching tour will operate on Þruma I-V at 14:00.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 20:30
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 16:00, 20:00

Report from Eldey: There was a northerly wind over the bay today and a bit of a cloudy sky, but with excellent visibility we had very good conditions for our whale-watching tour. We found a pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins who started swimming right next to the boat, giving us a birds-eye view of their white-striped bodies. Just as the dolphins had disappeared, our eye caught the blow of something bigger: the blow of a humpback whale! The whale was swimming towards some fishing boats, surfacing regularly and calmly. As he only took shallow dives, never lifting the fluke fully out of the water, he was only diving for a few minutes at a time so we were lucky enough to get many looks at this beautiful whale. On the way back to Reykjavik we enjoyed northern fulmars soaring next to us, Atlantic puffins flapping past, and northern gannets flying above. A wonderful day in nature. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Hafsulan: Right after our crew finished preparing our ship for the start of one more adventure at sea, we boarded our passengers, which were excited to discover what nature had reserved for us. Soon after leaving Reykjavík´s old harbor, we started searching for wildlife. We first came across small groups of birds, including puffins who already had some of their 1st catches of the day, with fish hanging from their mouth to prove it. Eventually, we came into an area full of marine birds, a signal that the area was filled with fish. And in this area it was were we had our 1st sighting, as a humpback whale surfaced for air, in front of us. We hanged around with this beautiful animal, observing it when it came up for air. And soon enough, white-beaked dolphins showed up to feast together with the whale, in what was a beautiful feeding frenzy, full of birds, a whale, and dolphins.

- Ricardo Mendes

Report from Eldey: We sailed out to the same area where we had seen the humpback whale this morning, and were happy to find that he was still around, swimming underneath a big flock of birds. The humpback was feeding, surfacing regularly and sometimes even showing us his fluke when he went for a deep dive! While we waited between surfaces, we could admire lots of northern gannets plunge-diving into the water at great speeds. What an incredible spectacle of birds and the gigantic humpback whale feeding on the abundance of food in the bay today! 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Elding: The wind seemed to have picked up a bit this afternoon when we headed out. We had heard the whale we saw earlier was now a bit further out. We still headed in that direction but hoped to find other things earlier on. Luck was on our side as this did happen. We had headed through an area with many feeding Arctic terns before a minke whale surfaced on our right hand side. It came up for 2 breaths before vanishing. We waited a few minutes before we decided to carry on. Very quickly we then saw a big blow in the direction of Keilir. This blow then reappeared a bit closer but for now all we could see was blow. Then just in front of us the humpback whale appeared! We got to see it surface lots and lots. It went for quite a lot of fluke dives and lucky for us these deep dives didn´t last very long. Once it even surfaced less than 20m from our boat. It was amazing to see this huge whale so close through the water. After a great sighting we then headed home against the wind and waves. But everyone was still so happy after a great afternoon.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Eldey: Despite the mostly cloud covered skies and refreshing northern breeze, we headed out, full of excitement about what this evening had to offer. After sailing into to the bay for a bit, we were surprised by a pod of 5 white beaked dolphins that came bowriding for quite some time, as well as a second pod of dolphins a towards our left! Not too long after, we spotted a big blow right in front of us. Not too much later, a second blow a little bit further away caught our eye as well. We then quickly realised we were in the company of 2 humpback whales. One was quite shy, but the other one seemed to be travelling quite leaaurely and we could stick around with this indivual for quite some time. It even treated us with multiple beautiful fluke dives as well! Eventually we ran out of time and left this animal to continue its trip. On our way back, happy and fulfilled, we enjoyed a nice warming cup of hot chocolate while talking about the amazing wildlife we saw this evening.

- Milan Vansteelandt

Report from Eldey - this evening we set sail into the midnight sun. The sun was shining through the clouds and with mild winds on our back we had a nice sail as we seached for the animals. Once we reached a productive area with many birds feeding we spotted a pod of 20 white-beaked dolphins. They were actively fishing and we could watch them in action for a while, including many jumps and tailslaps. A few times they joined us on our sail and started bowriding. We continued our search until we spotted a minke whale. The animal was shy and only surfaces a few times but we spotted more dolphins in the distance so could have one last look at them before it was a time to head back to the harbour. 

-Aleksandra Lechwar

Atlantic puffin, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, razorbill, common guillemot, black guillemot, Arctic tern, Arctic skua, black legged kittiwake, great black backed gull, lesser black backed gull, herring gull