Monday, 10 February 2025

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 13:00

Todays Whale Watching Tours from Reykjavík are on schedule.

Report from Eldey: Today was one of those classic Icelandic days—overcast skies, a bit of light rain, and plenty of wind. You know, the kind of day that makes you feel like a true adventurer! We made our way to the charming Hafnarfjordur, and just as we were arriving, bam!—a pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins popped up to say hello. After months of waiting to see them again, I was pretty excited. But these dolphins were a bit too cool for school—they weren’t having it, so we decided to give them some space and move on. As we made our way closer to the harbor, we noticed loads of northern gannets flying around. Now, these birds aren’t just pretty—they’re like the fish-finding ninjas of the sea. Their presence meant there had to be something good in the water. And then, just when we thought things couldn’t get better, a humpback whale decided to make our day! This humpback was putting on a show—close surfacings, showing off its massive tail fluke, and probably enjoying a feast of fish. We could see the gannets diving in excitement, clearly getting their fill of the buffet the humpback had set up. It was like the ultimate dinner party, and we were all invited. I swear, this whale was posing for the cameras! Everyone was on cloud nine, even though the rain started coming down a bit more heavily by then. Of course, we had to head back to Reykjavik before we got too soaked, but no one was complaining. We’d gotten our fill of whale magic for the day.

- Mariana Veloso

Report from Eldey: We sailed straight back to Hafnarfjörður harbour in search of the same whale we had seen this morning. As we approached the harbour entrance, we started to see more and more birds - fulmars, gulls, guillemots. But most impressively, gannets! They flew all around us, some very close to the boat and were diving into the water right next to us. It was like being in the middle of a nature documentary. However, we still hadn't seen any signs of the whale. We started to leave the harbour but just as we got past the harbour wall, one of our passengers spotted a humpback whale! It was the same individual that we saw this morning that had maybe had a break from feeding. As soon as we saw it though, it started swimming straight back towards the birds and started feeding again. We were able to see the whale lunging through the water and the birds diving down afterwards! A couple of times it also came really close to the boat so we could see the whole body through the water! Amazing! 

- Emily Erskine

Northern gannet, northern fulmar, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, black guillemot, common guillmot, black-legged kittiwake, eider duck, European shag, great cormorant