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Friday, 26 May 2023
Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 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
- PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
- PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
- CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
- 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.
CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 0900
Report from Eldey: After a week of having to stay at home we finally had an opportunity to get out. We set sail into the bay despite it being quite windy and fairly rocky. But everyone put on a brave face ready to try and find some cetaceans. After about 30 minutes of travelling we spotted a lone harbour porpoise. This was a very elusive porpoise as they can be so we carried on in search of bigger things. We were later surrounded by many feeding seabirds. Within this we saw 1 elusive minke whale. Then on our right hand side we saw a blow from a humpback whale as well as 1 white beaked dolphin coming within metres of our boat too. But this dolphin disappeared as fast as it appeared. We then went in search of the humpback blow and saw another minke whale. We then got to see the humpback surface again a few hundred metres away. But as with our other 3 species so far it was also very elusive and hard to track. Therefore, we carried on and we were rewarded as we found 8 humpbacks all feeding in close proximity. We got to see many beautiful fluke dives. One of them did 2 peduncle throws! There was then an amazing end to the sighting with a humpback coming within 5-10m of our boat. It was so cool! We then headed home away from the rough seas but very happy after an incredible sighting.
- Rob Hyman
Bird species encountered today include:
Arctic tern, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, common guillemot, Atlantic puffin, black guillemot, black legged kittiwake, great black backed gull, lesser black backed gull, eider duck and black headed gull
Wildlife encountered today:
The Humpback Whale is quite spectacular undergoing the longest migration of any mammal (5176miles/8334km one way), attracting females by singing to them and of course their energetic nature. On many occasions humpbacks have been seen breaching, tail slapping, fin slapping, blowing bubbles and spy hopping just to mention a few. The humpback is also one of the larger whales we encounter
The Minke Whale is the most common whale around Iceland and actually the world thus it is one of the main species we encounter on our whale watching tours. It is one of few species that don’t mind coming to shallower waters like here in Faxaflói Bay to feed on the abundant food available to them.
The white-beaked dolphin is the most common dolphin found in the surrounding waters of Iceland and is seen not only in the summer but winter too usually in larger numbers, hundreds sometimes. When feeding they show energetic behaviour such as breaching out of the water and coming down with a big splash and bursts of fast swimming.
The Harbour Porpoise is the smallest and most abundant cetacean around Iceland. They are usually shy but occasionally they come and play around the boats. They can be relatively hard to spot from a distance due to their size and their abundance depends entirely on the food availability of our shores since they are opportunistic feeders.