Saturday, 1 February 2025

Saturday, 1 February 2025

  • CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00
  • CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

Report from Eldey: Today we had all the seasons and all the weather! After 2.5 days of cancellations, we were looking forward to getting out to sea again. We headed round the coast back to Hafnarfjörður in search of the whales that were there before the storm. Due to the strong winds in the previous days, there was quite a swell at sea but this just added to the adventure! As we approached Hafnarfjörður harbour, I could already see huge blows coming up from the surface. In total, there were 3 humpback whales! There was one pair very actively feeding together under a large flock of northern gannets. The whales were doing huge vertical lunges so we could see their massive mouths open at the surface! After they had gotten their mouthful, that's when it was the birds' turn! The gannets were doing their signature torpedo dives straight into the water around the humpbacks! It was incredible to watch - just like a nature documentary! While we were watching this pair, some passengers also spotted a third humpback on the other side of the boat, so when more whale watching boats arrived, we moved closer to this individual. Once we were close by, this humpback surfaced really close to our boat so that we could see the whole body of the animal! That's when we realised we recognised them - it was our friend Pongo! We had last seen Pongo just a couple months ago in December around the islands closer to Reykjavik so it was great to see this speckled individual again! After amazing sightings of these three whales, we had to turn around and start our journey back to the harbour. Even though the way back was still rocky, we were still so excited by what we had seen.

-Emily Erskine

Bird species encountered today include:

Northern gannet, northern fulmar, common guillemot, black guillemot, eider duck, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake, glaucous gull, European shag, great cormorant