Saturday, 04 July 2015

Tour at 20:30

Report from Hafsúlan: I was a expecting a beautiful evening as we steamed out in to the bay but my expectations were blown away. Cracking a few jokes we sailed leisurely looking out for cetaceans. We didn´t have to go very far before spotting three minke whales in front of the boat. We turned off the engines and had them come right up to us. We stayed there for about 45mins with the whales blowing right beside the boat. Then some white beaked dolphins started leaping behind the boat, so we turned around and followed the pod of more than 10 individuals whose behaviour changed from leaping to leisurely swimming several times.To our left was the stunning sunset and to our right dolphins swimming next to us. Our talented musician started playing songs and we enjoyed our ride back home. Fantastic tour.

-Tommy Torrades

Tour at 17:00

Report from Elding: The wind had picked up a little this evening and thus a tad colder, causing the free overalls to become more in use especially as we headed towards the north directly into the 7-9 m/s winds. After about 40 minutes of sailing we found our first minke whale, chilling out and having a nice siesta after a hard days work of feasting. We were able to follow this whale for a while and was able to identify it as Haski, a minke seen often this summer and first cataloged in 2013. We even saw another minke in the distance towards keilir but we knew of a very productive area towards the south west so we wanted to check it out. We saw plenty of diving gannets, manx shearwaters, seagulls and even a few storm petrels but no cetaceans. We traveled further for maybe another 40 minutes when we came across suddenly another minke, we were able to follow this individual for a long time and see it swimming just below the surface and prepare for it to surface. It was on our way home that is got very exciting with a rolling minke whale and a pod of KILLER WHALES!, yes you heard me, killer whales. A pod of two large males, 1 sub adult male, 2-3 females and a calf. They were traveling fast but we got a great look before heading back to port. With a  big grin on my face from todays wonderful wildlife and weather. Can't ask for a better job. 

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind picked up a little from the morning tour but the sea was still very calm this afternoon. While the last tour began with whales, this began with the white-beaked dolphins. A pod of around 7-8 individuals that appeared after around 45 minutes of sailing, they were a very nice pod that was just as good as we have come to expect from the dolphins in this bay. They were traveling slowly with the boat for some time and giving everyone a great chance to photograph a species that is normally difficult to capture on camera. The dolphins led us to an area where there were 3 minke whales in a small area, things became hectic then as whales and dolphins were constantly surfacing in all different directions! After moving on from this area we traveled to the area Marfló, on the way stopping for two more minke whales. When we got to Marfló we were surrounded by diving gannets and feeding gulls, also feeding here was another minke whale that we saw using bubbles to trap fish under water! When we headed back to the city we came across the same pod of dolphins we found in the morning tour and got one last goodbye with the wonderful animals. 

- Jack Ball

Tour at 13:00

Report from Elding: It was a beautiful warm day today, I just needed to wear a thermal top and a t-shirt on the tour and haven't done that since the previous summer. Got to appreciate the little things. We traveled towards our usual whale watching area, about a 40 minute sail and found an area with about 4 minke whales in a space of 45 degrees, some close and some further away, but with a flat calm sea it was easy to pick out the black backs miles in the distance. We found Tap amongst these scattered minke, an individual that has been keeping us company on many of our tours this summer. We later decided to search for some dolphins and as soon as we made the decision to leave we found a pod, about 8 or 9 white-beaked dolphins that were traveling fast but slowed down after a while and we could watch them travel through the turquoise water under and around the boat. A few more boats came into the area then and so we left and went more offshore. Found an area with loads of diving gannets, guillemots, seagulls, arctic terns and 3 minke whales. One of which was called Aura, seen every year since 2007. Aura came super close to the boat and gave us the perfect end to a perfect tour, The ride home was relaxing and beautiful with a couple of quick glimpses of 2 pods of 3-5 harbour porpoises. Not a bad day to be out at sea.

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The great summer weather conditions continued with another flat ocean for our journey. It didn´t take very long to find lots of animals this morning, within 25 minutes we had sighted both harbour porpoises and minke whales! The porpoises were elusive as usual but the flat sea made it possible to get a rare good look at them. The minke whale we found was resting and spending lots of time under the water surface, as this was not the most entertaining thing we moved on but this was a great start nevertheless. Over the rest of the tour we would get a good look at 4 more minke whales and in the surrounding area there were 5-6 more whales sighted, the bay was full of whales today! Along with the whales we found a large pod of white-beaked dolphins that was around 15 individuals large, they even had a young calf with them! The dolphins were fantastic and were incredibly comfortable swimming around the vessel and spending a lot of time with us. It was a gorgeous day with very cooperative animals giving us all a great show. 

- Jack Ball

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: As always in the last days, we went out from Reykjavik on this beautiful morning. We had been sailing for only about 20 min, when passengers spotted the first minke whale of this tour. We spent some time with this individual and with the help of our pictures of it, we could identify it as "Elephant", a minke whale that was identified first in 2013 and was also seen in 2014. We left it alone after a while and headed further offshore. It didn't take long until we found two pods of white-beaked dolphins.  The larger pod (about 15 animals) was feeding underneath a lot of circling seabirds, while the second group didn't not move around that much. We could spent quite a while with these dolphins, and watched them stop feeding and traveling next to us and finally join the other pod. While watching the dolphins, we also saw three minke whales in some distance, and later decided to get a close look at these individuals. As we observed the minke whales feeding around us, we still had an amazing view of the dolphins a little further away traveling together and leaping out of the water. After spending some time with the two minke whales, we headed back to the dolphins and could observe them resting closely together and barely moving. Even on our way back to the harbour, we stopped another two times, because minke whales kept surfacing around us. A busy tour full of cetaceans! 

- Hanna Michel

Birds seen on todays tour include: Kittiwakes, black-backed gulls, arctic terns, arctic skuas, eider ducks, puffins, guillemots, razorbills, storm petrels, gannets, manx shearwaters, red-necked phalaropes, fulmars.