Saturday, 30 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was absolutely stunning as we left the harbour in Reykjavík this afternoon. It was calm, sunny and the seas were nice despite a long, deep westerly swell. It started with a pod of white-beaked dolphins that were travelling northwards. There were about 4 individuals and among them was a calf that always surfaced with a bigger one, presumably its mother. The dolphins did not really seem very fond of our presence so we decided to leave them alone and head further out. We found minke whales shortly after and there were lots of them in the bay. They were calmly and slowly swimming along, spending lots of time at the surface and often lunge-feeding. It was apparent that a lot of food was available to them this afternoon. All in all they must have been around 6 or 7. After we decided to leave the minkes behind and head back, we found the same pod of dolphins as earlier. This time, they were not being shy at all, they breached for us from quite close up and even swam under out boat and put on an awesome show for us. Along the way, we did encounter some 4 or 5 harbour porpoises but quite frankly, they really did not compare to the great minke whale and dolphin sightings we got. Tonight, we will get the first low of the winter so an excellent summer is coming to an end and this will surely be a great tour to look back on. May the coming autumn be nothing short of what this summer has been: splendid!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The long swell was not much restriction to the visibility conditions we found out in Faxaflói. The smooth water surface and the light was ideal to spot. We could even enjoy the sunbeams which were at times reaching us. Our sighting series started with a pod of about 3 dive-travelling white-beaked dolphins. As they spent more time under water than at the surface we decided to continue on and not to far away we spotted another pod of the same dolphin species in the suns glare. They were at least 3 probably more. Short after harbour porpoise were appearing and this pod from the beginning was not the only one. It followed a second pod which we saw spread out in different directions around the boat appearing regularly. In total there were up to 10. From time to time some of these porpoises were speeding up, splashing or showing more of their tiny bodies. At the end they were surrounding one of the at least 2 minke whales we could observe very well. We even saw part of the lower jaw with the pale coloration as one lifted his head partly out of the water when it emerged. One of them with a clean not identifiable dorsal fin was several times so close that we could hear it as well as we listened to the exhalation of the porpoises. Part of the tour was a bit like hopping from sighting to sighting as in this good conditions we saw wildlife all around us. A lot to enjoy!

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The winds had picked up a bit this afternoon and this time around, we had to put up with some rain showers but after a while, the weather actually lifted, the visibility improved and the sun even came out. It was quite an easy tour because we found a minke whale quite early on and from then on, there were four of them feeding all around, spread out over quite a large area, and surfacing frequently. Two of them were even surfacing simultaneously for a while which is quite rare with minke whales. There were few birds around but yet, there seemed to be plenty to eat as the minkes would frequently surface with their mouth first apparently feeding in the surface. On the way back, it was bright, the winds calmed down and it got a lot warmer than it had been so all in all, a very nice tour in ever improving weather. Better enjoy it before the storm hits tomorrow!

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The sun was shining mildly, but slight rain was drizzling upon us when we were out in the bay. Even though the water was flat and almost no wind was noticable, we were unlucky for most part of the tour. Initially, we followed a few feeding northern gannets, but even that didn´t yield results. Suddently, we had noticed a minke whale next to us. However, the whale submerged and was not seen again. Thus, we headed south towards the Reykjanes peninsula and ended up with another flock of northern gannets peacefully sitting on the surface of the water. Our luck did not change until we reached the harbour and therefore we offered our passengers a complmentary ticket to come back and try their luck again.

-Dominik Schmid

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was overcast as we headed out on the Faxaflói bay this morning. But luckily, it stayed dry almost all the tour and the winds were quite calm too. On the way out, we found a pod of harbour porpoises that were not shy at all and came up several times very close to us so that we got nice looks at their tiny bodies. After we left the porpoises, we did not see anything for a while and finally, after about an hour, we managed to find a flock of birds in the distance. When we approached them, it turned out that there were also white-beaked dolphins there. It was a pod of around 6 animals and they seemed curious about us as they approached us, leaped out of the water and even dove underneath the boat. Awesome! There were also lots of sea birds, including diving northern gannets, around so when we finally found the right spot, it turned out to be quite lively.

-Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on today's tours include: Lesser black-backed gulls, fulmars, common guillemots, northern gannets, great skua, turnstones, manx shearwaters and puffins.