Sunday, 30 august 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: the sea conditions were still good but now we had a long rolling swell that rocked our boat a little bit. We didn't need to travel for a long time before finding our first cetaceans, a minke whale. It was easy to follow it and we got it within 100 meters from our boat. We decided to go a little further out and soon spotted a blow in front of us. This was a blow from a humpback whale that we know very well and call Þröstur. Before we got close to it it jumped out of the water! We followed this humpback for a good time and we often got it really close to the boat and right before we were going to leave it it jumped again out of the water and this time so close to the boat! Soon after we left the humpback we saw a pod of 5-6 white beaked dolphins. We also got a very good look at the dolphins when they swam all around and under our tour. While watching this pod of dolphins we saw other dolphins a little further out that were jumping out of the water! this was amazing end to our tour. Over the tour we must have seen at least 5-6 minke whales on the tour.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Like this morning, the tour started in Reykjavík in a bit windier but still pretty good conditions. We didn't see any harbour porpoises on this tour, but instead it started off with a pod of 6-7 white-beaked dolphins after only 20-30 min. We saw them traveling in a close group in a couple of hundred meters distance; however, instead of approaching them we decided to head further offshore in the area where we had been this morning. We spotted 3-4 minke whales along the way until we reached an area with two humpback whales. Thy weren't traveling together but a few hundreds meters apart. So, after we had spent some time with the first humpback that gave us a few nice fluke ups and some tail-lobbing, we made our way over to the second humpback "Þröstur" that was lunge-feeding underneath flocks of birds also feeding on the swarm of sand eels. Þröstur was rolling over and lunging forward in to the fish swarm so that everyone got to see the spectacular feeding behavior of these animals. Meanwhile, we had another 4 or so minke whales in the same area and slowly getting closer to us giving us the chance to observe both whale species at the same time! On the way back to the harbour, we came across another pod about 10-13 white-beaked dolphins. They were pretty relaxed and didn't really seem to care about our presence; and as we slowly approached them we noticed that there were at least 3 baby dolphins in this group that were most often surfacing right next to their mothers. The cutest ending a whale watching tour can have! 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: This afternoon tour started just as incredible as the morning tour, with the most amazing weather conditions. The sea was nearly completely calm and even the sun showed itself in the beginning. After finding two humpback whales further out in the bay on the first tour, we decided to travel straight out towards the location where they were seen last. On the way we encountered several harbour porpoises as well as white- beaked dolphins. As the first pod of dolphins came towards our boat, a group of around 8 individuals, we slowed down our boat to have a better look at time, while they were having a “better look at us“. Just as we left this group we spotted another one, a smaller pod. We decided to continue and look for the humpback whales, and indeed we found them, not just them, also a large amount of minke whales before, during and after our encounter with one of the humpback whales. Even on out way back to the harbour we could enjoy the abundance of marine mammals in the Faxaflói bay. Estimating around 7-10 harbour porpoises, 2 pods of white- beaked dolphins with 13-15 individuals, around 15 different minke whales and two humpback whales.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: A fantastic tour full of animals! In the great conditions we had today, it didn't take a long time to spot cetaceans on our way in to Faxaflói. After only about 25 min we got to see two pods of harbour porpoises, a larger one with 6-7 animals and another one with 3-4 animals. Usually, they are rather difficult to spot but today we could see them traveling away from us for a couple of minutes. Shortly after, we saw a group of white-beaked dolphins traveling at high speed, but soon noticed more dolphins all around us, some jumping and leaping out of the water. It is impossible to say how many dolphins we saw since we could constantly see dolphins around us, basically throughout the entire tour. While watching the first group of dolphins we also noticed 3-4 minke whales a little further away from us, before we steamed further out in to Faxaflói. Then we soon spotted the large blow of a humpback whale and could watch it lunge-feeding under a flock of birds as we slowly approached it. To not disturb this animal too long, we started searching for a second humpback whale we had heard about; and found it traveling together with a group of 7-8 white-beaked dolphins. There were minke whales all around us as well, probably 7-8 individuals, and two of them got within 50 m of us. As we were running out of time, we had to leave this area full of cetaceans and sea birds; however, on the way back we got to see another group of the white-beaked dolphins (6-7 animals) and also 5-6 more minke whales! 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The sea conditions were just perfect this morning, the sea surface was so smooth it looked just like a mirror and for that reason it was really easy to spot animals. The tour began with a pod of 7-10 harbour porpoises that were quite scattered but easy to follow and while we were watching the porpoises we spotted a minke whale few hundred meters further out. This minke whale came towards us and surfaced few times within 100 meters distance. We kept on going and after only 1-2 minute we spotted our third species, 5-6 white beaked dolphins! They also came towards us, they swam all around the boat and even followed us for a short time. We really wanted to try to find a humpback whale on the tour so we kept on going further out on the bay. We soon got a call from two other whale watching boats that they had spotted two humpback whales so we headed there. On the way we saw so many minke whales and over the whole tour we saw around 9-10 individuals. Our tour ended with a humpback whale that was traveling and feeding with a pod of 4-5 white beaked dolphins!

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannets, northern fulmars, kittiwakes, atlantic puffins, arctic terns, red-necked phalarope, common guillemots and lesser black-backed gulls.