Friday, 10 June 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 17:00 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00

COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised.

Report from Eldey: The trip started off with some microphone issues, however we managed to resolve them and I decided to guide from the crowd at the top deck to ensure everyone could hear me clearly. It wasn't too long before we managed to encounter our first humpback whale, which breached on the horizon, before decided to regain its energy and go for some deep feeding dives. Sadly as more boats showed up we decided to leave it alone and give it some breathing room. We then moved on to a second whale that greeted us with a friendly wave, sticking its pectoral fin high into the air before wriggling it around a little bit. Then we got a report of a second humpback whale socialising with a pod of ​6 white beaked dolphins and decided to check it out, and we soon saw this humpback swimming in formation with the dolphins screening either side. As we spotted 2 more blows on the horizon the inquisitive dolphins came right up to us and decided to have a look, with their distinct white saddles glaring at us from under the surface of the water.​​​​​​ In total we despite only getting close to 3 whales, we saw another 4 around us, for a total of 7 whales, so the bay was teeming with life. After leaving the very playful dolphins behind we followed one more whale that showed off its beautiful fluke to us for multiple dives before we finally had to return to port. It was an incredible trip with very close sightings and a unique interspecies interaction.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Elding: beautiful day at sea, today! The sun was shining the whole trip, disturbed only sometimes by some passing clouds. It wasn't windy and the sea was not rough until we were far from Reykjavik, just off Akranes. Even then, it wasn't too cold and it wasn't rocky enough to get anyone seasick. Probably everybody was too distracted to feel sick as we had a beautiful sighting of an humpback whale fooling around with its pectoral fin and fluke, slapping it repeatedly on the surface of the ocean. We then saw from a distance another humpback breaching repeatedly, thus we decided to move there to try to observe some of its jumps from up close. We managed to get there in time, and we could observe Horus (that's its name) breaching with its full body, several times, from very up close. It was also slapping the surface with its pectoral fin and going for fluke dives, showing the completely white underside of its fluke - which is the trait that allowed us to identify this individual. A rare tour for a rare perfect-weather day, in Iceland!

-Francesco Golin

Report from Eldey: Such an awesome tour this afternoon. As soon as we left the harbour we encountered our first out of 5 humpback whales. The first individual was probably looking for food as it changed directions twice and end up heading Reykjavík. In contrast, the second humpback whale was probably sleeping as it was swimming in slow motion. It was quaint to see it going for a deep dive moving its body so slowly and showing us its beautiful fluke. Our third sighting was even better, two humpback whales swimming together! One of them seemed half the size of the other one, and they looked as a mother and its calf. Our fourth sighting was a humpback whale that was swimming super fast and erratic, probably looking for food. After watching these amazing animals performing so different behaviours we began heading back only to encounter yet another humpback whale in the distance. What a wonderful afternoon to be out on the sea!

- Estel Sanchez

Report from Elding: Although the wind was predicted to pick up this afternoon, the conditions at sea were actually even better than in the morning. After about half an hour of sailing we spotted our first blow, a humpback whale that was feeding. The whale was taking dives of around 6 minutes and often showed us the fluke, but later it changed its behaviour and took shallower and shorter dives. When we had admired the fluke from up close, we decided to head further out. There we encountered something we didn´t expect, and the surprises just kept on coming. First we saw the blow of a humpback whale, then we saw the splashes of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins, and then a second humpback whale surfaced! While the whales were diving, the dolphins inspected our boat and rode our bow - it was incredible to see these beautiful animals from so close and funny to observe the difference in size between these toothed whales and the humpbacks when they came up again. For some time the dolphins harrassed the whales a little bit, but eventually the dolphins disappeared and we could completely focus on this humpback whale duo. The size difference was impressive, with a small individual and one of the largest humpback whales our crew has ever seen, probably close to 17 meter in length. The two were swimming very close together, and the larger individual rolled onto her back and revealed that she was a female. All of the evidence pointed to this being a mother and calf, and we were amazed to see this beautiful family bond from so close. When I say so close, I´m not exaggerating - the whales were within meters from the boat! Thankful to have experienced such an unforgettable sighting we sailed back to Reykjavík and checked out some puffins and arctic terns on the way.

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: We left port in good spirits, given the sightings this morning; and the flag flapping in my face. After a brief interruption due to an issue with the microphone I decided to come down and guide from the crowd so everyone on board could hear me, and it wasn't long before we saw our first humpback whale. The whale were largely feeding, but for one exception when it decided to breach right behind another boat less than 100m away from us, before returning to diving for food. We decided after a little while of watching this individual that it was time to let it feed and moved on to another whale of the same species we saw tail slapping on the horizon. Sadly as we neared it it also decided to stop and begin diving. However by this point we had seen another 3 humpback whales all around us, so we were free to travel around and get a closer look at each of them. One decided to peduncle slap, swinging its tail in the air horizontally. Another breached on the horizon. Our captain Otto and crew Estel were successfully taking bets as to if a whale would surface right below a flock of birds, and were right twice. In total we managed to see 5 humpback whales during this period, and most were active enough to show us some acrobatic behaviour. Sadly all good trips must come to an end and we had to say goodbye to the whales, one whale even decided to wave back, and we headed back home.

- Liam van Walsum

Eider duck, northern fulmar, atlantic puffin, arctic tern, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, common guillemot, herring gull, arctic skua