Friday, 21 February 2025

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 13:00

Today's whale watching tours from Reykjavík are on schedule. Remember to dress according to weather and feel free to borrow our thermal overalls if needed!

Report from Eldey: The morning tour started with calm seas and little to no wind. We could see many eider ducks on our way to see the cetaceans! After about 30 minutes into the tour, we spotted white-beaked dolphins, organized in 3 pods of about 20 to 25 individuals! An amazing feast for our eyes to see and gaze upon. They we fast moving and changing directions rapidly, almost like they were fighting for territory! After a few more minutes we continued our journey to find something bigger! And soon enough, while entering the harbour of Hafnarfjördur, two blows from 2 humpback whales were spotted. Something unusual, but also becoming recurrent on our tours, whales close to land! We could identify Pongo and his buddy from yesterday, swimming side by side and feeding on sprat. They eventually left the harbour towards the open ocean and so did we. After a nice fluke dive, we said bye bye whaly whales!

- Pedro Teixeira

Report from Eldey: This afternoon, we were expecting more rain but after a little shower at the beginning, the clouds parted and we actually got some sun! It's finally starting to feel like summer again! As we sailed out of the harbour and passed Grotta lighthouse, we spotted our first animals. It was a pod of 10-12 white-beaked dolphins. They were swimming very slowly and calmy, sticking very close together in their pod so were probably resting togther. We were able to watch them for a while and see them very close to the boat a couple of times before we decided to move on and explore more of the bay. We carried on and as we were sailing, we passed a fast pod of porpoising harbour porpoises. There was 3-4 individuals in the pod but we only saw them a couple of times before they disappeared under the waves. Once we arrived back in Hafnarfjörður, we soon spotted the same pair of humpback whales, still just at the harbour entrance. We carefully followed them in the shallow waters as they heded further into the harbour at first and then back out again. Most of the time they were synchronised in their surfacing but once, the individual we know as Pongo, came up right next to us! As they dove under the water again, Pongo twisted its body so we saw half of their tail! The water was so clear we could see its full body as it dove down. Soon after we had to head back to Reykjavik but all of us on board were happy with our afternoon!

- Emily Erskine

Great northern diver, eider duck, northern fulmar, European shag, great cormorant, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, black guillemot, common guillemot, raven