Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: A slow start but an incredible finish!, It took us maybe 40 minutes to sail to the main area of the day and we enjoyed many puffins swimming along on the way, enjoyed the ladscape and the calm weather. It was a little chillier on this tour as the wind changed direction and came from the north west, but it was still not that strong. After 40 minutes of sailing we saw our first harbour porpoises, minke whale and white-beaked dolphins. In just the first hour we had seen 3 species and then started to head to our 4th, a humpback whale. Everywhere we looked we had cetaceans popping up and by the end of the tour we had seen 4 humpback whales, 2-3 minke whales, 3 pods of white-beaked dolphins, (1st pod 4-5 individuals, 2nd pod was a mother and calf and the 3rd was at least 10 dolphins), however the dolphins where quite elusive and difficult to approach and at least 20-30 harbour porpoises in small pods throughout the tour. The humpback whales were the stars of the show though, mostly traveling and little be of feeding and socilising. There were 2 single humpbachs and a pair. One of the pair was obviously in a playful mood and BREACHED out of the water 5 times. It was amazing, a video of it can be seen on our facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/EldingWhaleWatching/. The whole day was incredible but this tour definitely topped it off.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: the wind had calmed down even further on this tour, the sea was almost like a mirror. We sailed out to the same area as before and soon found ourselves surrounded by cetaceans. It was an area of high productivity, small sandeels and copepods provided nourishment to the vast amount of seabirds and whales in the bay today. First it was mainly harbour porpoises we were seeing as they quicily surfaced around the boat, it was hard to know how many we saw but at least 30-40 throughout the tour. We also saw at least 4-5 minke whales too and a small pod of white-beaked dolphins (4-6 animals), they were a little elusive though. These three species were in one area and a little further offshore we found humpback whales, 3 animals feeding in a large area. One of the humpback whales was called Picasso, an individual first catalogued in May 2014 and see frequently this spring. We can ID individuals by the colouration pattern and scars under the fluke. Flocks of noisy arctic terns also covered the bay, these were also fun to watch as was the puffins, guillemots, fulmars, seagulls, arctic skuas, gannets and man other species of birds we also saw feeding. An incredible afternoon.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We started the morning with a light wind from the East which helped us sailing out Faxaflói. It was a chilly morning but with a great visibility that allowed to enjoy the whole view of Reykjavik city and the surrounding. After 40 minutes of sailing we spotted our first whale of the day, a minke whale came at the surface several times before to go for a deeper dive. While we were waiting this animal to came back at the surface we saw a powerful blow from the distance, so we decided to gave it a chance. Once we were closer we could perfectly see a humpback whale feeding in the area together with a flock of birds. We just stopped in the area and enjoy the time with that animal around us. After a while, a couple of humpback whales showed up in the distance, coming and going around giving us an amazing morning together with the beautiful weather. In the meanwhile some passengers saw a couple of minke whales again from the distance. It was a morning full of life in the largest bay of Iceland today.
Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, manx shearwater, arctic skua, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, black-headed gull, kittiwake, common guillemot, puffin, arctic tern and eider duck
- Alejandro Garcia
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