Monday, 14 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The weather was excellent as we headed out this evening. The seas were calm and the visibility stunning. After about an hour, we spotted some splashes in the distance which turned out to be produced by leaping white-beaked dolphins. We spent a good amount of time with them as they interacted with our boat, diving under it and showing off their whole bodies before leaving them for some minke whales that we had spotted in the distance. The minkes were resting and we did not manage to get very close to them but had some nice sightings nevertheless. On the way back, we saw two more pods of dolphins which again were leaping and approached the boat. All in all, around 4 minkes and 10 dolphins were seen. On the way back, Bjarni played us some songs on his guitar.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: With conditions much the same as they had been all day we headed out for the fifth time today hoping to spot some cetaceans. The tour followed the same recipe as the preceding ones at nine and one and we spotted some Harbour porpoises soon after leaving the harbour. These individuals were quite elusive however and we did not get a very good look at them. We then sailed further out until we found some White-beaked dolphins! These cetaceans are always fun and we had a good look at them as they were travelling, porpoising and leaping out of the water. After spending some time with the dolphins we headed further out hoping to spot some of their larger cousins. We were not dissapointed and we spotted a black back belonging to a Minke whale not long after leaving the dolphins. This was quite a social individual and surfaced around us frequently, giving us a good look at it. Then on our way back we spotted a very peculiar dorsal fin. We moved closer and found that it belonged to a Basking shark! These individuals are quite rare and we got an absolutely amazing look at the shark as it swam past us very slowly with its mouth wide open. A fantastic end to a good tour!

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind had picked up a little bit since the morning tours but apart from some smaller waves the conditions for sighting whales were still quite good. And soon enough we spotted the first Minke Whale in the distance. We headed closer but did not manage to get a close look at this individual before it disappeared. Unfortunately, the same thing happened with most of the other minke whales we discovered throughout this tour. We found at least 4-5 of them but only got to look at one of them a bit closer. It was the last individual we were with before heading back towards Reykjavík and it surfaced fairly close to our boat before heading away. The same was true for a single Harbour Porpoise we had seen earlier in the tour - we got a nice look at first but then the animal headed away and disappeared. Even though we didn't find any more whales - we enjoyed the scenery on our way back to Reykjavík.

- Linda

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Conditions were absolutely amazing today with mirror flat seas and almost no wind. The previous tour was a good one and we headed out hoping to have a repeat performance. It started off well with us finding some Harbour Porpoises early on. These individuals were quite elusive, but we nevertheless caught a good look at them before they swam off. A good start to the tour and we headed further out, able to see for miles around us. Pretty soon we spotted a black back in the distance and our first Minke whale had been spotted! We then proceeded to spot around 4-5 minkes throughout the tour. They surfaced both close to us and far away and we got a very good look at them. We spent the best part of the tour with the minkes and saw them surface again and again enjoying the sight of them and the nature around us. Towards the end of the tour we were about to head back when we spotted two White-beaked dolphins in front of us. These individuals were quite calm to begin with and provided a fantastic end to the tour. We got some good looks at them and then headed back to Reykjavik quite pleased with our three species tour.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The sea and weather conditions were picture perfect as we headed out into the bay: an almost mirror-like surface reflecting light grey clouds. Soon we found a pair of White-Beaked Dolphins, but we left them after a brief encounter and sailed towards a larger pod of dolphins. There were individuals breaching, leaping and porpoising through the water while others were traveling more casually. There must have been at least 15 individuals in this pod which later united with another one. Overall we must have seen no less than 30-40 dolphins on this tour. Whenever we left a pod of them in search of something else we were met by the next pod! And many of them had leaping or breaching individuals in the group... With the Minke Whales we were less lucky: we only found one individual and this one proved to be very elusive. But the dolphins more than made up for it and so did the amazing weather!

- Linda

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: No wind and calm sea were greeting us today. Perfect spotting conditions were offered. The sky was cloud covered but sometimes there was some golden light for a short time reflecting on the calm water. Short after leaving the harbour we already could enjoy our first sighting. Approximately 6 Harbour Porpoises have been calmly swimming around, surfacing several times in our vicinity so that with the time hopefully everybody was able to make out their small triangular dorsal fins and parts of their bodies. We continued further out to Faxaflói and we saw some White-Beaked Dolphins in the distance. As we came closer we could observe different behaviours from breaching to leaping, surfacing fast and some direction changes including approximation from side of the dolphins. Some were swimming synchronously in a tighter line formation but the pod was very dispersed. There were sometimes visible 180° towards the front of the boat. All in all there were between 20-30 individuals visible, some of them younger ones. After we were able to observe them very well closer and also further away thanks to the calm sea conditions we got a very good impression of dolphins in the wild. As we went from the smallest cetaceans to the bigger ones we were looking for even larger sizes and so we did find our first Minke Whale surrounded by a lot of different bird species. We could identify this one as "Aura". He came up several times and we had good looks but then he went for a longer dive and so we were slowly heading landwards. In front of us appeared more White-Beaked Dolphins this time a smaller pod (4-5) maybe part of the once we saw before. While we were watching these dolphins heading out into the open ocean there was another Minke surfacing in the distance towards the harbour. So we decided to sail towards the whale and as we came closer we realized that there were even two Minkes close by and a third further away. The two closer by were "Tap" and "Peanut" which we also recognized thanks to their unique dorsal fins. We saw them from different angles even coming towards us and for a glimpse the white pectoral patch was visibly shining through the water. Having so much to look at time flew by very quickly and we had seen 3 species and with two of them we could spend quite a nice time. What a nice day!

- Carine Zimmermann