Friday, 6 July 2012

Tour at 2030

Report from Elding: with Fin Whales only having been seen on two tours last year in Faxaflói Bay (we saw them as well when we went from other harbours) we have been waiting in excitement for what this year might bring. It turns out that these are fine Fin Whale days. Indeed the only whale (or whales, we half-suspect there were two, altough perhaps one Minke Whale popped up as well) we saw on this tour was a truly massive Fin Whale! This gigantic beast didn't mind us whatsoever, just lunge-fed time and time again, so close to the boat it was breathtaking! We saw its eyes, we saw into the massive mouth as it closed it around unsuspecting krill in the water next to the boat. This 20-28 meter and 70-120 ton thing was the greatest thing that the guide on the tour had ever seen and we were just in awe over the sheer beauty and power of the scenario next to us! Love you Fin Whales! Do continue coming! We have a wonderful video of this on our YouTube page!

Tour at 1700

Report from Hafsúlan: This day might never end, regarding the great sightings we had in our tours. We decided to head straight out into the bay and try our luck with the Finwhale again. At first we stopped at a Minke Whalethat surprised us on the way out. It was great to spot and we stayed there until another Vessel arrived and we decided to leave the whale in peace. Once we were a bit further out in the bay we spotted a big blow in quite a distance. Exited about the straight and high blow we went straight into the area and found what we were hoping for. It was the Finwhalewe met before in the day but this time we came really close to the individual and got a great show. We could not believe our eyes when it started rolling and lunge feeding not more than 10 meter away from us! What an magic and impressive moment to join the second largest animal on earth while feeding fish close to the surface!! Brilliant tour!

Tour at 1400

Report from Elding : At least  2 Fin Whales this afternoon on our tour and 2-3 minke whales around them when we first saw them. The Fin whale is the second largest animal on our planet after the blue whale (20 to 28 meters), and we don't see them often in Faxafloi bay. So this tour was just incredible!!! We saw the enormous blows from far and that was already exciting, then the fin whale popped out very close to our boat twice at the beginning, we followed it a bit when then we saw a breaching whale far away maybe 3 km, jumping 5 times. When we arrived we didnt manage to see it surfacing again, but it was a big whale which jumped straight up with huge splashes from far, that the guide thought it is maybe a humpback whale. Well the peak of the tour occured at the end when we found again a fin whale, surfacing very close to us that we could hear the huge blow. It once came towards the boat just in front turning then a bit left that we could see its shadow under the surface and mostly the white colour of its lower right jaw (the lower left jaw is black), which indicates clearly that it is a Fin whale. the fin whale also have a small straight dorsal fin. And it showed us several feeding behaviours, rolling at the surface showing once not far its whole long body and its fluke on the side. AMAZING TOUR AND HAPPY PEOPLE! Birds seen : Gannets, fulmars, puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes, arctic terns, gulls, arctic skuas.

Tour at 1300

Report from Hafsúlan: After this great start in the morning we were not prepared that the next tour might be even better! In the begining of the tour it started slowly, we were sailing and searching for a very long time until we had the first sign of a Whale. It was the dorsal fin of a Minke Whale that surfaced only once but at the same time we spotted a second Minke just a few hundred meter further away. With this individual we stayed for a while and everyone got a good look on it. While we were watching the Minke Whale we got a sudden visit from a Pod of 5 to7 Harbor Porpoises. They came straight towards the boat were diving underneath us and surfaced many times! Very great Porpoise sighting! We decided to head back towards land and hoped to spot something on our way back but we were not prepared for the "biggest" surprise of the day! It was 1 or 2 Fin Whale(s) producing impressive blows and surfacing not more than 40 meter away from us!!! WOW what a sighting! After this great and magic moment with the second largest animal in the world we headed back towards land and stopped shortly at Akurey to watch the cute and small Puffins on the island. Great tour with BIG surprise!

Tour at 1000

Report from Elding: We saw 10-20 Minke Whales this morning between 40 meters to 300 meters. But they were a bit difficult to follow and approach. But we had sometimes really good look at them and people on board were still impressed, mostly because they were actively feeding all around our boat and rolling at the surface. The best moment was one minkie in front of us lunge feeding and rolling on the side, that we saw the whole fluke (tail) of the minkie out of the water on the side. The minkies never show the fluke while diving, and it was a cool experience to see the perfect beautiful shape of the fluke (like a huge dolphin tail) while rolling at the surface. We saw a lot of birds : Arctic skuas harrassing and attacking arctic terns and kittiwakes, puffins, fulmars, lesser black backed gulls, black guillemots, common guillemots, troil's guillemots and even some razorbills and gannets.

Tour at 0900

Report from Hafsúlan: What a great morning in Faxaflói Bay! We started the tour at Akurey to watch thousands of Puffins. It is great to see how good the colony doing at the moment and we hope more and more to have young birds on the island in this autum. Once we were further out in the bay we spotted something in a great distance, some splashes and a black back, this turned out to be two lunge feeding Minke Whales! What a great moment out in a calm bay! Both of them surfaced close to the boat and we could see small fish jumping while the Whales were lunge feeding not more than 10 meter away. Once we all ahd a great look at the Minke Whales feeding hehaviour we headed into another area as there was a second boat coming and we did not want to disturb the whales. Not more than five minutes later we found a Pod of 10 to 15 White Beaked Dolphins. Again a nice surprise. They came close to the boat and we saw their whole bodies under the surface, before we decided to head back towards land. On the way back we spotted 4 other Minke Whales in different directions that we just looked at while passing by. Amazing start into the day for all on board!!!

Photos and video taken by engineer Guðmundur Geir