August is off to a great start; we had the most wonderful encounter with a juvenile minke whale today! It was very curious about us and our boat and circled all around us for a good 40 minutes, coming very close and sticking its snout out of the water as if to get a better look at the strange creatures on board!
"Such a beautiful morning and an absolute memorable, extremely special tour for all of us. Just past Engey island we spotted a juvenile minke whale, less than 3 meters large, that was absolutely curious about our boat. It approached our bow within centimetres. As it began to understand that we would move from side to side to watch it, it swam underneath us constantly and playing hide and seek with us, sometimes suddenly sticking it's head out on our right side, sometimes on our left. We turned off our engines and just let this minke whale do human watching for a good 40 minutes until it left us. Although we did spot it again we decided it would be better to leave it alone so that it would focus on finding food rather than being distracted playing with us, just like our children would."
Video by naturalist Kristín Viðja
Report by naturalist Sabrina
Diary entry: elding.is/thursday-1-august-2019