Sunday, 03 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We took our way out to Faxaflói behind Engey (one of the puffin colony island) in the shelter of Esja heading towards Akranes while the wind was blowing quite strong. So we had a quiet ride out but as we didn't see any cetacean in this area we opened our course heading into more white caps and a bit of a roller coaster ride, when we were changing directions. The sky was overcast the whole tour through but the sun was still high up at the sky, visible through a cloud layer. We finally got to a denser area of active bird life after having seen for example scattered flying birds especially a lot of gannets or flock of resting fulmars on the surface. We spent some time in the area hoping to see a whale appearing when suddenly a pod of harbour porpoises of at least 5 individuals, possibly more, emerged 50 m in front of the boat. As the sea was rough and the Harbour Porpoises are very small compared to other cetaceans it was for an untrained eye quite a challenge to see of what was going on in front of us. It was a very unusual sight as we had this animals for around 15 minutes milling and surfing in our vicinity. Probably they have been feeding among the diversity of seabirds, not taking notice of our presence and like this not showing any shy or elusive behaviour as the mostly do. But as very few passengers were capable to spot this small cetaceans we decided to give everybody a second chance to try again to come whale watching. As all proved to be very seaworthy and they looked like they were enjoying the bird life, being out on the water or the information provided on board, we hope to see them soon again.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind had picked up when we headed out onto the bay this afternoon. We spent a good amount of time looking until we came into an area where lots of fish was showing on the fish finder. It proved difficult to spot the minke whales that we knew were present in this area but in the end, two of them were seen. One of them was a known and identified individual, "Humpie". The minkes were being shy and apparently very busy feeding so we would have liked to have some more sightings. We headed further out to take a look around but found nothing there. On the way back, we spotted a minke whale again, and it is not unlikely to have been the same one we saw on the way out. All in all, the sightings that we got on this tour were quite disappointing and some passengers got sea sick on the way back. Such is wildlife.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Conditions were a bit choppy today and the wind was blowing from the east. Despite this weather the sailing was very smooth as we began our cruise out into Faxa Bay. We had very many people on board today and as such had people looking at every square centimetre of sea. That proved to work out quite well as a passenger soon shouted "4'o clock"! We turned the boat and after a short search spotted our first minke whale! This individual came up once or twice and then went for a deep dive. It showed elusive behaviour after that but we stayed in the area because of the amount of food present as seen by the captain on our on board fish finder. There were also plenty of birds about and we spotted some puffins along with the beautiful gannets. Our wait proved worthwhile and in total we spotted perhaps 4-6 individual minkes in the area. They were surfacing erratically around us, most likely feeding on the fish we had detected. We spent the rest of the tour there observing the feeding minkes before heading back towards Reykjavik after a good tour.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We headed out on the Faxaflói bay with a south eastery wind from behind this morning. After around an hour, we found a pod with around 6 white-beaked dolphins breaching and leaping, producing big splashes. As we got closer, they ceased the breaching but continued to surface frequently so we managed to get some very nice looks at them. After about 20 minutes with those, another pod of similar seize was spotted around a kilometer away. Again, they were breaching at first but stopped as we got closer. We spent some time with them before we decided to head back towards the city. On the way back, a minke whale was spotted. It was in an area where there was plenty of fish and displaying a typical behavior for a feeding whale. When every one had gotten to see the minke whale well, we sailed back to the city because we were running out of time! Great start of the day.

-Arnór Tumi

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: After a rainy day yesterday all was dry today, there were thinner clouds covering the sky, so that we saw the sun through them. The wind which was announced on the forecast we could find on the ocean, so we were rocking and rolling in the white crest waves, especially when we had to change course. But nevertheless our captain was giving its best, steering us safely through the ocean and bringing us to 3 different cetacean species. We started with the smallest of the 3 most seen ones of the summer time - the harbour porpoises. A minimum of 3 most likely more have been swimming quite close with high speed in front of our boat. It looked like they were bow-riding. As we realised their presence we immediately slowed down our pace and it appeared like they lost their interest in surfing our bow wave so they turned to the right and disappeared. After this rare encounter we continued searching and found 2-3 white-beaked dolphins which we unfortunately just saw for a very short time. After that we noticed the presence of the third species of this morning tour, a minke whale, by its blow. We also saw its back but as it was rather difficult to watch and some high splashes were created in front of us we headed towards some active White-Beaked Dolphins. They were the highlight of the trip as this pod of up to 10 individuals which were a bit dispersed in 3 subgroups was travelling, milling, surfing and then suddenly leaping and breaching again. One animal jumped out of the water with his entire body for many times provoking high splashes and showing us his majestic body and its control over it. Finally everybody got to see this show and it was performed quite close to us. On our way back we met 1-2 more Minkes where again the blow was well perceptible as well as the smell of its breath. The bodies also emerged but our time was up so we had to return back to the Harbour of Reykjavik. The second pod of the active dolphins definitely made this tour to a good one even if some have been struggling with the sea conditions.

- Carine Zimmermann

Birds seen on today's tours include: Arctic terns, northern gannets, puffins, eider ducks, cormorants, kittiwakes, lesser black-backed gulls, black guillemot, common guillemot, manx shearwaters, great skua, arctic skua and fulmars.