Monday, 29 June 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Today our captain decided to head further south than usual, passing between Akurey and the Seltjarnarnes peninsula. This was a great decision because we encountered a pod of white-beaked dolphins, 4 individuals, after only 20 minutes of sailing. We stopped and the dolphins got pretty close to the boat. They were heading towards Akurey and we got some amazing views of the dolphins and puffins that breed on Akurey together. We headed further out and encountered some harbour porpoises on our way, they didn't stay for long but some got pretty good look at them. We had to search a little bit harder for the minke whale but after a while one popped up only 50 meters from the boat. It turned out to be Humpie, an individual we know because he is missing the top of his dorsal fin. As the passengers had their eyes on Humpie another pod of white-beaked dolphins showed up just right in front of us. These dolphins were absolutely amazing, swimming towards us and we identified one of them as Conor, he has a very distinctive cut on his lower dorsal fin. This was a great ending of a great day.

-Katrín Björnsdóttir

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: This afternoon started very similar to our morning tour, beautiful weather, calm sea and white- beaked dolphins. We kept spotting dolphins throughout the whole tour, adding up to around 25-30 individuals. During these encounters we also saw several minke whales, 3-5 different animals, as well as 3-5 harbour porpoises. Sightings were very good, especially around the very popular Márfló area, where we had all three species surrounding the boat at the same time, giving us the full whale watching experience. We stayed as long as we could, but unfortunately we had to head back to the harbour at some point. On our travels home many passengers seemed to enjoy the dolphins and puffins that kept passing us.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Flat seas and a pale sky made this afternoons sighting conditions excellent. We could see across the entire bay all the way to Snæfellsjökull glacier! This trip was dominated by repeated sightings of white-beaked dolphins, in total we saw 5-6 pods of dolphins which came to around 20 dolphins. They differed in quality of viewing with some staying far away and some coming close and travelling alongside the boat. We got to see lots of jumping and surfing the ocean surface from these dolphins too. We also had two minke whales sighted on this trip, with the first minke whale the best part of the tour. This minke whale was very comfortable with the presence of the boat and was often coming close to us, with calm flat seas this made for perfect photo opportunities. The second minke whale came at the end of the tour but by this point we were out of time with these wonderful beasts and had to sail back to the city.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: On this beautiful and sunny morning went out from the harbour in search of cetaceans. Immediately heading west it didn't take long until we had several encounters with a small pod of white- beaked dolphins. They seemed to be shy, avoiding the boat, so we decided to let them be and move on. Looking for other marine mammals, we saw a minke whale not far infront of the boat. It was traveling towards mount Esja, surfacing many times, diving very short, which made it very easy to get a good look and some great pictures of this individual. After following it for a while we decided to look for other animals, and only a short trip later we encountered several pods of white-beaked dolphins, giving us a closer look at them while they were having a look at us. As if this tour wasn't already very amazing, on our way back we sighted even more dolphins as well as a pod of harbour porpoises. Estimating around 3-4 harbour porpoises and 25-40 white- beaked dolphins.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We went out in gorgeous weather, sunny day and a really good view over the landscape around Faxaflói. We had to go pretty far out to fins our first cetacean but we were delighted when we spotted a minke whale. Later on we spotted another minke whale farther out into the bay. These minke whales weren't in a whale watching mood so it was hard to spot them but everybody got a good once he came a little bit closer to the boat. After 1 1/2 hour we decided it was time to go and look for some dolphins. We were really lucky this time and after some time of searching we encountered a big pod of white-beaked dolphins. There were about 12 individuals and we could see them really close and even under the surface of the water. We were really happy to see these fun animals in the end of the tour.

-Katrín Björnsdóttir

Birds encountered on today's tours: northern fulmars, common guillemots, puffins, kittiwakes, arctic terns, lesser black backed gulls, great skuas, manx shearwaters, arctic skua.