Saturday, 2 April 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tours 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00

Report from Eldey: This morning was cold but the sea conditions were very good. It was sunny early in the morning but when we sailed out of the harbour the sky got overcast and in the end of the tour there was a bit of light rain. We sailed in the area where the humpback was seen yesterday and looked around when a passenger thought he saw something. We turned and waited, after 5 minutes we finally saw a minke whale in front of us, swimming toward our boat. We saw it surfacing 3 times before it disappeared. We waited 10 minutes more but the whale was not appearing anymore so we kept going with our tour. Closer to the land and to Reykjavik we found a pair of humpback whales. We generally see those whale solitary so we were happy to see that those ones were here together, probably feeding. There dives were a bit irregular but often they were gone for long dives of 10 minutes. We had very good views on those whales even seeing the pectoral fins through the water. We stayed with those beautiful marine mammals until we were out of time and we headed back to the harbour.

- Miquel Pons

Report from RIB: We were lucky to catch the sunshine and relatively calm waters this morning before the wind picked up and it started raining in the afternoon. After a fun ride with a few splashes and northern fulmars flying closely past us, we arrived to an area where a humpback whale had been spotted. We scanned the surface all around us and saw not one, but two blows! We were really excited to see two humpback whales swimming closely together, as we mainly see solitary individuals in the feeding grounds around Iceland. The whales were surfacing irregularly and initially a bit challenging to follow, but later they changed their behaviour and we could stay within a few meters of them as they came up for an unusually long time (about 12-15 breaths in a row). The encounter was very exciting as we waited in suspense, watching when the silhouette that we saw underwater would come up above the surface. With the whales so close to us, we were able to see all the details on their heads and body, inspect the markings and barnacle scars that makme them uniquely identifiable, take in their impressive size and hear their powerful blow - an unforgettable experience!

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: We journeyed towards the area where we spotted animals this morning which would be our destination. The sky was covered by clouds and we had some light rain which was on an off throughout the tour but because of the contrast between those clear colours and the black dorsal fins of the animals the spotting conditions were pretty good. We had a nice variety of seabirds including: eider ducks, long-tailed ducks and Northern fulmars. As soon as we reached the area, we spotted some big blows in the distance, and there was a humpback whale! We decided to follow her a little bit in order to get a better view. She was moving slowly, straightforward, and in a relaxed fashion. She was regularly diving during about 4 minutes, so we had to be patient, but eventually we got to see her raising the tail stock out of the water, which is fortunate, because it allowed us to recognize our friend: Neila, who we encountered many times during the last days and the last summer. She was great and we were all surprised but a sudden breach! After following her for a while we started heading back to Reykjavik. It was definitely a beautiful tour.

- Estel Sanchez Cami

Black-legged kittiwake, herring gull, black-backed gull, eider duck, northern fulmar, european shag, long-tailed duck, northern gannet, black guillemot.