Monday, 12 August 2024

Today we will be operating our Classic Whale Watching on our lovely vessel Eldey at 9:00, 13:00, 17:00, just as lovely Hafsúlan at 11:00 and 15:00. Our Premium Whale Watching tour will operate on Þruma I-V at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 20:00.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

Report from Eldey: We set off on under glorious sunshine and on very very calm seas with almost no wind. Perfect conditions for whale watching. After 45 minutes we noticed a few large flocks of birds feeding. Then right in the middle of them all 2 blows from a couple of humpbacks went off. We focused on one of them. It seemed to be quite lazy at the surface before diving deep down to where the fish were this morning. We got to see it quite a few times, even with a couple fluke dives too! We then headed off in search of more. Other boats were around with another 2-3 humpbacks but we chose to try and find other animals to minimise our disturbances. And then right on cue we spotted another humpback. There also seemed to be 2 here. The first we saw behaved very similar to our first humpback with longer dives. But the second was very easy to watch taking lots and lots of breaths at the surface. After having close encounters with 3 humpbacks and seeing blows of even more we headed home in the sun very happy.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Hafsulan : The weather was just incredible this morning : big sun, no clouds, flat seas, delicious temperatures, just the perfect conditions to look for whales. It did not take long before we found our first humpback whale. It was gently traveling, sometimes diving and showing us its fluke in the process. After staying a little while with this individual, we continued our journey and found two more whales, at first separated within a hundred meters, and that finally joined to start traveling together ! Such a cute moment to notice. Some passengers even spotted a breach in a far distance ! Finally, we found another pair of humpbacks traveling together, regularly diving, almost in synchrony. Before we left, both whales surfaced just a few meters from our boat and one of them unexpectedly half breached, slapping its tail against the water. We were in awe, just speculating about the potential meaning of the whale´s behavior. We sailed back to port chatting with the passengers under the same agreeable sun that had welcomed us to the bay in the morning. 

- Olivia Garcia

Report from Eldey: Our tour started quite well, with good and sunny weather as soon as we left the harbour. As we ventured into the centre of Faxaflói Bay, our crew continuously scanned the horizon, looking for signs of whales. Soon enough, we spotted multiple blows between our 11 and 1 o´clock, about two kilometres away. As we approached them, we could verify that we were in the presence of 3 humpback whales. We quietly approached with our boat, and witnessed the whales, as they returned to the surface for short periods, before diving again, possibly to hunt for more fish. To back this idea of ours, during the whole time with the whales, we were surrounded by arctic terns, these beautiful birds that would always approach the whales, in search of left-over fish. Eventually, one of the whales started violently tail-slapping, possibly communicating with the other whales present in the area. As the tour approached its end, we left back to Reykjavík, satisfied to have seen these amazing giants once more.

-Ricardo Mendes

Report from Hafsulan: Our journey started with calm seas but the wind was slowly increasing, even so we decided to adventure out at sea. We sailed for about half an hour before we spotted our first blow! As we got closer we could clearly see a humpback whale! Then we saw a second blow as a second humpback resurfaced next to the first one! we watched as the two whales swam gently next to each other fluking in synchrony. As time went on we will notice a few more blows in the horizon and so we decided to explore further out, we bounced from whale to whale until we had a great surprise! A breach! We saw the whale jumping out of the water completely followed by a second breach and them multiple peduncle throws ! We all watched excited as the whale stopped for a few minutes before restarting the show and adding a few slaps with the pectoral fins! As other boats were starting to arrive and our time was running out we decided to head back to the harbour but we still had a few minutes to see another whale fluking once more in our way back. 

-Maria Ernesto

Report from Eldey: We set off now facing a bit more wind but the sea was still reasonably calm. We headed to the same area as earlier in the day and we came upon the pair of humpbacks. One of these was Hooker. They kept coming up together giving us a great look at them and it even felt like they were bow-riding at one stage. They were super close. After a bit we decided to leave them and then this tour just went crazy. From now we realised there were proabably about 7-9 humpbacks around, of which 5 of them breached at least once. Including Hooker and another individual who probably both breached for at least 10-15 minutes straight. First was one individual then when they finished Hooker started. It was incredible to see. Whilst Hooker was breaching another 3 also did including one much closer to us that did it 3-4 times. It became a breaching show. Hooker then also started to pec slap and roll as well. Then they all started to calm down a little bit and we started to head back after the most sensational evening.

- Rob Hyman

Atlantic puffin, Arctic tern, Northern gannet, northern fulmar, common guillemot, black guillemot, herring gull, black backed gulls, eider duck, black legged kittiwake, arctic tern