Monday, 14 September 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: The weather was really good today in Reykjavík and the sea conditions were just perfect for whale watching. The sea was completely flat so it should have been easy to spot the cetaceans. But still we had to work really hard to find our first cetacean. It wasn't until 1 1/2 hour into the tour that we spotted our first pod of white-beaked dolphins, a small pod of 5 individuals. These dolphins were really great, leaping and bow-riding but unfortunately we only got to enjoy them for 10 minutes or so because we saw a big splash in front of us. This splash turned out to be a feeding minke whale but we only saw it surface once more. This was very characteristic for all the minke whales that we saw on today's tour. We spotted around 4 minkes over the tour but all of them from quite a distance and only once or twice. On our way back we were lucky enough to see a really big flock of northern gannets, at least 100 birds feeding around the fishing boat. It is really an amazing sight to see this many gannets plunging in the water. 

- Katrín Björnsdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: We got to enjoy this tour under quite an important cloud cover but almost without wind and with very nice temperatures, which is valuable considering that the summer season is over. During our trip, we met no less than four minke whales ! Most of them were quite elusive, busy feeding or traveling away, but one came very close to our boat several times, to our greatest enjoyment. After a while we left those minkes to try to find other species, and we encountered a pod of 6-8 white-beaked dolphins. They were bow-riding on front of a RIB boat, but they made us the honor to come to check on us few times. So in the end we got to have close encounters we our two most common species here, and in excellent sea conditions ! A fulfilling way to spend an afternoon in Iceland.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: This morning we sailed out in perfect conditions with no wind and a flat sea. Although it was a bit cold in the wind, which is very common when it comes from the north here in Reykjavík. We made good use of the complimentary overalls that we offer all passengers. We had sailed for quite a while before we spotted a dorsal fin in front of us. It belonged to a resting minke whale, it was traveling very slowly close to the surface. We could have a few good looks at the whale before it went for a second longer dive making us loose it. We continued searching and in conditions like today we expected to find more. It was towards the end of the tour when we got reports of a pod of dolphins, so we headed there. 8-9 white-beaked dolphins were feeding and interacting with the boat in a large area. Two of them came up really close swimming underneath the boat and followed us for some time. On the sailing home another pod of dolphins (2-3) joined us shortly and a minke whale surfaced in the distance. All and all a pleasant morning tour.    

 - Marcus Bergström

Bird species seen on today's tours include: atlantic puffin, northern gannet, northern fulmars, black-backed gulls, black-headed gulls, manx shearwater, arctic terns, arctic skuas and common guillemots.