Sunday, 12 July 2015

Tour at 20:30 

Report from Hafsúlan: This evening was quite pleasant with a light wind from the west and clear conditions as we sailed out into the bay. We decided to head straight out to where we had been seeing a humpback whale today on previous tours. It was a long cruise, about an hour and a half but we decided it was worth the effort. On the way out we passed a minke  whale  and some white-beaked dolphins but we didn't stop, instead heading out towards the humback. Half way there we got reports from another whale watching boat that the humpback was still in the area. Excited we cruised past another minke, hoping to catch the humpback. We were two miles out when a blow was spotted and the humpack spotted! It continued swimming slowly and regularly letting out big blows as we approached. We were about 400 metres out when the humpback suddenly breached out of the water and landed with a big splash! The long cruise out definetley worth it. We then watched the humpback as it swam about, showing us its fluke, rolling around and feeding. It was an awesome display with the midnight sun and Snæfellsjökull in the background. A fantastic experience and we headed back to Reykjavik in high spirits.

-Ívar Elí Sveinsson 

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: Due to a large number of passengers we went out with two boats, a German one and a general whale watching boat. After two tours heading out very far in Faxaflói bay to have a look at the young HUMPBACK WHALE, we decided to continue to do so, since the animal seemed very calm in our presence both times. While traveling out we saw several marine mammals further away from the boat, but we still kept going to reach the whale as fast as possible. When we did, the animal seemed to be resting. This state changed very quickly when it started to move faster. The animal gave us a very good look at it's fluke while it was going, what seemed to be a deep dive, but on the contrary, it was a way to get some speed for the animal BREACHING infront of our boat. All the people on board were speechless as the animal was going for another "dive", and just as we informed the passengers that it could jump again, it completely came out of the water and turned as it was clashing down into the water again. This continued for several more times. We looked at it breach as long as we could until we had to turn back. On the way home our luck seemed to continue, seeing two pods of white beaked dolphins with at least 15 different individuals as well as a minke whale a few hundred meters away. This was undoubtedly an unforgettable tour, with memories that will last a lifetime.

- Michaela Buchbauer and Marcus Bergström

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On our afternoon tour we headed straight for the humpback whale that we encountered on our morning tour. Traveling west, without stopping we saw several cetaceans in the distance, minke whales, dolphins and harbour porpoises. When we arrived in the area with our favorite juvenile humpback whale, it was already feeding on the high amounts of fish in the area. Even from the boat you could see several clouds of fish underneath the water surface, which were quiet reduced by this one individual. We watched it surface feed for a while, even lunging once, until we had to head back to the harbour, since we were so far out. On our way back we encountered minke whales and white- beaked dolphins, which were at some point giving us quiet a show infront of our boat, with some acrobatic jumps. Estimating 2-3 minke whales and 2 pods of white beaked dolphins with around 15 individual animals.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 13:00

Report from Elding: We left the harbour with a full boat, in equally good conditions as on the morning tour. After only 30 minutes of sailing we saw a large pod of 50+ white-beaked dolphins, slowly traveling together. We spent a few minutes with the dolphins but then we started the sailing far out to the humpback whale. The whale was still in the same area, the feeding had stopped and now it was resting close to the surface. It traveled in a slow speed coming up to take a breath every 30 second, a clear resting behaviour. We could follow it for a long time and at the end it even showed us it´s fluke when it started to become a bit more active going for a longer dive. On our way back we saw 2 elusive minke whales and a brief encounter with harbour porpoises (2-3), making the 4 species tour to continue!  

- Marcus Bergström

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On this very beautiful morning we were very excited to go out on a whale watching tour since the seaconditions were perfect, there was basically no wind and we had sunshine as well. We were heading straight to the area where the first boat of the day spotted a humpback whale, taking a chance and hoping that the animal was still around. Even though we didn't stop for any other animals, we still had several encounters with minke whales as well as a quick view at a harbour porpoise. When we reached the location we were traveling towards, we immediately saw the humpback whale, close to one of the rib boats that were in the area. We got to spend quiet a long time with that calm and small individual, getting a very close look until we had to head back to the harbour. On our way back we spotted another minke whale close to the boat as well as jumping white- beaked dolphins in the distance. Estimating 4 different minke whales, 3-5 dolphins.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: We took a gamble on this morning tour. We decided to head straight out to the area where the humpback was seen yesterday. This meant that we didn´t have much time to stop for anything else since we had to travel for a little more than an hour to reach the area. The weather was superb with a flat sea and sunshine. It didn´t take long until we passed by a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins and 2 minke whales on our way out in the bay. It felt bad leaving these animals with only short glimpse but we had a mission... Soon it all paid of, a big blow was seen infront of us and it could only be one thing. A humpback whale was feeding close to the surface. We could see it rolling around and launch feeding on a big school of fish. When the whale came up the surface started boiling of fish trying to escape the whales mouth. Amazing to see! On our way back we encountered one more minke and the pod of dolphins, but also 2-3 harbour porpoises. Making this a 4 species tour, a great start of the day!   

- Marcus Bergström

Bird species seen on today´s tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, arctic terns, atlantic puffins, great skuas, arctic skuas, manx shearwaters, european storm petrels, common guillemots, greater and lesser black backed gulls.