Saturday, 29 November 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: It was a busy day for us here at Elding Whale Watching with over 200 passengers joining us for a sea adventure that we needed to take out both of our big whale watching vessels, Elding and Hafsúlan. The weather calmed down enough for one day so that we could explore Faxaflói. It only took us maybe 30 minutes sailing before we got word from another whale watching vessel about a few white-beaked dolphins they were seeing, once we were all in the area we saw maybe 3-5 dolphins but they were surfacing very unpredictably and very difficult to track them. Then the boats separated as there were more white-beaked dolphins jumping a few kilometers away and once there we could see even more of them further away. Thus, each boat can watch different dolphins for optimal viewing, which was better for the dolphins too. There seemed to be many dolphins maybe 30+ all in all but they were so scattered near and far. We were also surprised about how many seabirds we were seeing out in the bay, fulmars and seagulls everywhere, looked very promising. Elding was the first to spot a whale, a large humpback whale that we stayed with for over a hour. At first it was very difficult to get a good look at as it was taking long dives and always far away until nearer the end when it was travelling close to the surface and coming to the surface more frequently and travelling slower and more relaxed. We were hoping for that awesome tail to come up to get that ultimate photograph and for us at elding to get it for research purposes to see if we could identify the individual. The humpback was almost taking us home because we first saw it quite far offshore and when we left it we were only 20 minutes sailing back. It was wonderful. Hafsúlan got the added bonus of seeing a harbour seal and 2-3 harbour porpoises close to the harbour wall. An incredible day, not only with the wildlife but with the beautiful winter light, the sunset and the snow capped mountains. Wonderful day.

-Megan Whittaker and Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Birds seen on today's tour include: black-backed gulls, glaucous gulls, iceland gulls, eider ducks, common guillemots, fulmars, kittiwakes and oystercatchers.