Monday, 30 June 2014

Tour at 20:30 is unfortunately cancelled. If your require further information please email us at elding@elding.is, call us at 519 5000 or drop down to us at the ticket office.

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsulan: We headed out into the bay with strong rain and some wind blowing from the south. We spend a long time searching for any signs of cetaceans, despite many flocks of feeding seabirds. First, we spotted a small pod (4-6) White-beaked dolphins, which only surfaced 3 times until the pod disappeared rapidly. Then, out of nowhere, a single Harbour Porpoise appeared and surfaced 4-5 times before disappearing in the same direction as the dolphins. We searched for a while for the dolphins and porpoise, before we got word of 3-4 Minke Whales close by the other whale watching boat. When we reached the area, we found many birds: mainly Northern Gannets and Fulmars. This served us as indicator that there is in fact much food around. After a short wait two Minke Whales surfaced simultaneously next to each other. We spend about 20 minutes with the whales in close proximity of the boat. Just before we headed to the harbour one of the Minke Whales rolled underwater and pushed a large volume of water to the surface. A splendid finish for this afternoon tour.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: When we headed out this afternoon, the wind had picked up and it was a bit more rainy than this morning. The wind was more westerly than had been forecast so the boat was moving about quite a lot during the tour. It all started when we spotted big splashes. They turned out to be the result of a breaching minke whale! It breached vertically out of the water four times, one time showing off its white belly. Then it disappeared. What an amazing start of the tour! We headed further out and found a flock of diving northern gannets. Soon after, more minke whales started surfacing. There were about 4 of them and apparently, they were feeding. While we were looking at the minkes, three white-beaked dolphins approached us and dove under the boat! Beautiful. On the way back, big splashes were spotted in three different spots but we never managed to see the animals producing them. There were definately more breaching whales in the bay this afternoon. On the way to the harbour, we managed to get a brief glimpse at two more minke whales. Awesome tour, except for the fact that some people got sea sick. Not every day that you get to see a breaching minke whale.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had picked up since the morning tour and we headed out into the bay for a bit of a roller coaster ride... Quite early on in the tour we spotted some big splashes on the horizon - a breaching whale! We were however too far away to make out any details. As we continued in that direction we found a Harbour Porpoise and a  Minke Whale - unfortunately both quite elusive individuals. But as we headed further out we saw the splashing start again. And this time we were close enough to get some beautiful looks at a breaching minke... We even got to see its pink belly!! After breaching a few times it stopped and disappeared. A while later the splashing started again in another direction. We followed the splashes around for a while but never got close to the animal again. So we decided to head to a different area altogether. The ride there was fairly bumpy, but our passengers handled the waves really well! Unfortunately, we were only rewarded with diving Northern Gannets for the moment. Even though it was great to see so many of them and watch their show, we were very happy when we finally spotted another minke whale. And this individual was friendly enough to come quite close to our boat and even roll over on its back to give us another nice look at a pink minke-belly! After that it was already time to head back to shore, with another two minkes spotted on the way (overall 4-6 minkes on this tour). What an adventurous tour!!

- Linda

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The weather was much better this morning than had been forecast. Despite a rainy forecast we managed to stay dry almost throughout the entire tour. We started out with a pod of around 15 white-beaked dolphins that were playfully surfing the waves. approaching us, diving under the boat and apparently checking out our awesome boat! As we headed further, we found a flock of feeding northern gannets. They were diving all around us and soon, the first minke whales started surfacing. There were around eight of them in quite a large area surfacing all around us. Very nice! Apparently plenty of food in the area this morning. On the way back, we found what we assumed to be the same pod of white-beaked dolphins as we saw on the way out. This time, they were breaching, showing off their entire bodies, making splashes as they hit the water surface again. Fantastic morning!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsulan: The bay was surprisingly calm after passing the rainy and windy harbour area and here and there sunshine could be seen through the clouds. Already 15 Minutes out into the bay our first Minke Whale surfaced 4-5 times as close as 50 meters from the vessel. Further out into the Bay another Minke Whale pierced through the waves, showing of its telescoped rostrum and two blowholes. We spend some time with this individual, as it was surfacing regularly for 3-4 times and did not submerge itself for long. But when we heard of a playful pod of White-beaked Dolphins we changed course. When we approached the dolphins several (4-5) large individuals headed straight for our vessel and were bow-riding for several minutes. Some were even showing of their fluke while leaping. Soon enough another pod (5-7) of White-beaked Dolphins, but much smaller individuals, were joining up with the interactive ones. A small dolphin, seemingly a young, also back breached 3 times. On our way back to the harbour we then sighted 3 more Minke Whales passing, seemingly greeting us good bye.

-Dominik Schmid

Birds seen on todays tours include: Kittiwake, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Common Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Arctic Tern, Arctic Skua, Black-Backed Gull, Glaucous Gull, Manx Shearwater.