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All Viðey ferry services will be suspended between 28 October - 7 November due to construction. Service will resume once completed!

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Monday, 18 September 2023

Monday, 18 September 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00  Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land.  

  • CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 13:00
  • PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 14:00

CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00

Report from Eldey: our morning today was very sunny and on calm seas, although we still had a bit swell when we were very far out. Even though we had the sun shining on our faces, we could still feel a chilly wind coming from the North. So we sailed out ready to spot anything around us. Our first sighting was with a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins, that were a bit tricky, changing directions constantly, but we were patient and we could see them very nicely before we continued our trip. Not far out, we spotted a minke whale passing by, but this one was spending quite a while underwater, so after seeing it a couple of times more, we decided to check some splashes coming from another area. Getting there, we had another pod of white-beaked dolphins, feeding in a productive area full of fish and seabirds as well. We had about 30 dolphins all around us, they were coming quite close and bowriding, so we could basically look at any direction and we could have a nice look from one! After this lovely sighting, we started sailing back to Reykjavik, but first we spotted another minke whale in the bay, that was still a bit tricky, but we could have a look at it before we headed back home.

- Milla Brandao

CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 1300

Report from Eldey: We sailed out this afternoon hopeful of more cetaceans after a lovely morning. It was a bit trickier this afternoon, the cetaceans didn't seem to be as sociable. There were 2 occasions we saw a minke whale but only for one surface then never again. As the tour continued we searched in different areas but the cetaceans continued to evade us. As we started to lose hope we got an incredible surprise. A humpback whale had appeared! We have seen this individual a few times this year already. When we first spotted it we saw about 8 blows in the distance. Then once we were closer we saw it surface lots. We got to see two fluke dives as well which was amazing. This is how we could identify it. It was really great to see a humpback whale back in the bay again with them being less frequent over the last few weeks. We then headed home after a lovely ending to the tour.

- Rob Hyman

Wildlife encountered today:

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The Humpback Whale is quite spectacular undergoing the longest migration of any mammal (5176miles/8334km one way), attracting females by singing to them and of course their energetic nature. On many occasions humpbacks have been seen breaching, tail slapping, fin slapping, blowing bubbles and spy hopping just to mention a few. The humpback is also one of the larger whales we encounter

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minke whale illustration

The Minke Whale is the most common whale around Iceland and actually the world thus it is one of the main species we encounter on our whale watching tours. It is one of few species that don’t mind coming to shallower waters like here in Faxaflói Bay to feed on the abundant food available to them.

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The white-beaked dolphin is the most common dolphin found in the surrounding waters of Iceland and is seen not only in the summer but winter too usually in larger numbers, hundreds sometimes. When feeding they show energetic behaviour such as breaching out of the water and coming down with a big splash and bursts of fast swimming. 

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