Sunday, 29 May 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 13:00 and 17:00 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00

COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised.

Report from Elding: With clear visibility, bright sunny skies and very calm waters, we were excited to motor into Faxaflói this morning. Heading towards an area with many feeding seabirds, we soon spotted the dorsal fin and the back of a minke whale! The minke whale came up several times andd we were able to see the beautiful colouration on its flank as the sun highlighted him/her at the surface. Although we wanted to spend some more time with this individual, we decided to head a bit further out because we had heard about a humpback whale sighting about a kilometer away. This humpback whale surfaced calmly, showing us only the upper side of its fluke before he/she went for 3.5 minute dives. When more boats started to arrive we wanted to give the whale more space so we explored a different part of the bay, where at first we found 4-5 harbour porpoises and later also saw the arched back of another humpback whale. We were the only boat in the area, and this individual treated us to quite the show: she slapped her tail forcefully onto the water, rolled onto her back, and at some point even swam at almost an arms-reach past our boat! The striking white rake marks on her dorsal fin and the unique pattern on the underside of her fluke gave away that this individual was Líney, a whale that we have already seen in Faxaflói around April and again earlier this week. Thank you / Takk fyrir to Líney and all the other animals today that made this trip unforgettable. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from the RIBs: This morning we went out with two boats. The sea conditions were great, little wind and lots of sun made for a good trip. Our boats spread out to search a larger area of the bay. Not too long after leaving the harbour, one boat encountered a pod of 10-12 white-beaked dolphins. They were very relaxed, moving slowly through the water. They sometimes came quite close to our boat and we could see the white stripe on their sides through the surface of the water. The dolphins started to swim away from the boat so we took it as our queue to continue with the tour and look for other animals. Our other boat encountered a smaller group of 4 white-beaked dolphins, possibly members of the same family of the larger group, which our other boat was watching, some 7 miles away. In that group, 3 individuals were busy mating, while the 4th individual was curiously swimming under our boat. After the encounters with dolphins, boat boats went to the spot were a humpback whale was found. We were able to stay with the individual for a while. It was feeding and following a regular surfacing pattern, coming to the surface for a few breaths, every 3-4 minutes, before going for a deeper dive. We were able to see the fluke a couple of times as well! It was swimming toward the open ocean.

- Emily Erskine & Tena Sarcevic

Report from Elding: we had a very sunny trip and the sea conditions were amazing. About 50 minutes after we left the harbour of Reykjavík, we spotted a group of white-beaked dolphins in the distance. However, as we saw that there were already a lot of boats around them and we try our best to disturbe them as less as we can, we decided to give them some space and look for something bigger. We went to the same area we saw a very playful humpback whale in the morning, but after searching for it for a long time, we realized it wasn't there anymore. Turns out, we haven't seen anything else in different areas as well and we decided to offer complimentary tickets for one more chance of seeing the marine mammals in another opportunity. Still, we saw many northern fulmars in flocks on our way and the passengers could enjoy a very sunny and beautiful day at the sea, with an incredible view of the Snæfellsjökull glacier.

- Milla Brandão

Report from the RIBs: We went out on two boats again this afternoon. The conditions were just as good as the morning, the wind had just picked up a little. One boat headed north and one boat headed south to search as much of the bay as possible. On the boat that headed south, we searched for about 40 minutes before we encountered a pair of white-beaked dolphins. They were a little curious of our boat and came very close and swam under our boat a few times, showing off their bright white markings through the water. We had them to ourselves for a while before a few other boats joined us. Once they did, we decided to continue with our tour and try and find something else. However, after searching a large area of the bay and stopping by flocks of feeding birds we could't find anything else. The passengers on this boat received complimentary tickets. The other boat did the search of the northern area, but hasn't seen cetaceans. We turned toward the west and further out, some 13 miles from shore. In that area we encountered a pod of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins, very elusive, avoiding us. It could be the same group from our morning tour, which could explain their behaviour - maybe they were exhausted from mating and wanted to be left alone to rest. We continued our search in the out southwest and later on in the south area. There was a bit more action going on. We spotted few flocks of birds actively fishing. After long search, we came across with 1 harbour porpoise. It was a short encounter but all the passengers managed to see it surfacing few times. Soon after that we found an adult minke whale too. Minke was surfacing for just 1 breath, between the long dives, and moving quite long distance, so not easy to observe. Nevertheless, it was a nice encounter since we saw it surfacing few times, of which few were quite close to our boat. 

- Emily Erskine & Tena Sarcevic

Report from Elding: Sun and fog - that was our day today. The afternoon tour started with sun in our face and some of us were even wearing sunglasses. In spite of the sun, it was a little bit chilly so we equipped ourselves with warm overalls and drink hot chocolate in order to be able to face the weather and search for marine mammals. As soon as we left the harbour a massive colourful spout could be seen at the distance. It was a huge humpback whale with a beautiful symethric fluke. We could see how the fog was coming closer and closer, and at some point it started to increase so much that we could not follow that animal, and we could only see as far as 200 meters away. We waited for the humpback to show up again but it didn't so we decided to continue the tour. We searched far and long but unfortunately no other black backs, tails, dorsal fins or blows where spotted from whales or dolphins this afternoon so we offered our passengers complimentary tickets and hopefully they will have more luck on their next adventure.

- Estel Sanchez Cami
 

Eider duck, arctic skua, atlantic puffin, black guillemot, common guillemot, northern gannet, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, herring gull, greater black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, glaucous gull, black-headed gull, eider duck, greylag goose, arctic tern