Thursday, 23 June 2016

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: Almost no wind this evening and a flat sea. The first encounter of the tour was a pod of 4-5 harbour porpoises that we could observe for a while. Then we started what turned out to be a marathon search out in the bay and we went for a long time without seeing anything. Sharp eyed as we are onboard we spotted at least a single fin coming up in the distance infront of us. It was a white-beaked dolphin that seemed to be milling around. It is very unusual to see dolphins alone since they are social animals living in pods. Maybe this one was on the search for a new pod to join? After the dolphin the searching continued, a minke whale surfaced twice infront of us at one moment but then it was totally gone. Our second minke whale was a very young individual, the smallest minke the guide have ever seen! Not much bigger than a dolphin and very quick at the surface gave us a challenge but at the end we managed to get some looks of it. After that we had to sail back to harbour and our musician onboard played live music. Over and out!

- Marcus Bergström     

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: During our last tour of the day, we had very good conditions for spotting the cetaceans, as the sea was nicely flat. It was overcast but the scenery was quite interesting; with the hills and towns lighted up between gray sky and dark blue sea. Although at the begining, while we were heading out in the bay, the atmosphere was pretty calm, with no much animal (bird's) activity around, as we arrived at our main spotting area, we saw a pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises. They were traveling slowly, parallel with us, so we could watch them nicely. Soon we spotted big splashes of dolphins jumping about 800 meters away. We went to check them out and when arrived closer, saw it is a pod of about 8 white-beaked dolphins. They were milling and slowly traveling, and even though there was a calf in group, it seemed they are very relaxed and don't mind our presence. Very soon we were convinced to that, as they started to come closer and closer to out boat, which led to bow riding, followed with some leaping, multiple jumping and surfacing just next to the boat! Excellent encounter! :) After some time, we left that amusing group and started heading to the area where we heard, from another vessel, a minke whale has been spotted. As we were approaching that area, we saw a minke whale surfacing just in front of us, about 500 meters away. There were also few flocks of birds feeding in the area. We noticed a minke hasn't reached it's full size, therefore it might be a young, subadult, individual. Although it was showing just a little part of it's body while surfacing, we were able to see it surfacing couple of times for around 3-4 times in a row, so all the passengers had the chance to see the whale properly and even make photos of it. On our way back to the harbour, we spotted another pod of around 3 harbour porpoises. The cetaceans ligthed up gray sky on our evening tour! :)

-Tena Šarčević

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: We left the harbour in pretty good conditions, it was overcast but warm. We had heard from another whale watching boat that they were watching some white-beaked dolphins so we headed that direction but when we got close enough to see some splashes we spotted a minke whale. It surfaced a few times and even came really close to the boat and then something weird happened. A large air bubble popped up about 20 meters away from us but no one saw the whale, it could have been feeding at the surface but I'm just not sure. When it started taking deeper and longer dives we decided to leave that minke and head further out when we spotted another minke further out. It only surfaced twice though and then it disappeared so on we went. A third species made it's appearance when we spotted a pod of maybe 5 harbour porpoises passed us really slowly so we were able to get a good look at them. We noticed the pod of dolphins was in front of us so we decided to take a closer look at them instead of stopping for the porpoises because they can be really elusive and hard to spot. The dolphins turned out to be a pod of about six white-beaked dolphins and they were amazing! They started leaping out of the water and then came within a metre of the boat and started bowl-riding which was awesome! A really good encounter so we stayed with them until it was time to head back to the harbour. On our way back we spotted about 3 more harbour porpoises and two minke whales surfaced on either side of us about 300 meters away at almost the same time.It was almost like they had planned it. Then the fifth minke whale of the tour made an appearance in front of us about a 100 meters away and that one surfaced a few more times then the others had done. A good tour with three species, leaping white-beaked dolphins and a minke whale blowing bubbles;)

-Bryndís Ösp

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Sea still flat and with an overcast sky we sailed out again and encountered a minke whale after about 40 min. It was a relaxed individual coming up to the surface regularily and everyone could see it very well. After a while we moved on just to find a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins a couple of minutes later. It took a while to get closer to them and they seemed a bit shy first but then they came closer and swam around us and also started leaping out of the water as they traveled next to us. They were pretty dispersed and not easy to keep track on but most often we could see theit whole beautiful bodies when leaping and moving fast around us. As they started to move away from us we decided to leave them be and move on. Next we saw another minke whale. This individual was perfect for whale watching: It came up to the surface 10 times in a row to take a breathe before disappearing under the water surface for a while - one of the longest surface sequences I have ever seen from a minke whale! Minke whale number three on this tour was not as willing to show itself as we waited for a long time without seeing it again. However, shortly after that a pod of 5-6 harbour porpoises showed up in front of us, trvaled around us and then possibly started feeding a couple of hundred meters away from us. They went in circles and made a lot of splashes at the water surface. Most often it´s impossible to get a proper look at these cute guys but on this tour we could enjoy them for longer than ususal. Before returning to the harbour we found ourselves in the company of another pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins to get some more pirctures of my favorites!

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: A calm sea with an overcast sky was the setting for this tour. Low clouds stopped us from seeing the landscape around but spotting conditions around the boat was very good. We first saw a pod of 7-8 white-beaked dolphins. It contained two adults and the rest looked to be young dolphins that were very playful and surfing our wakes and playing around the boat. It was at least one mother-calf pair in the pod and this calf couldn't have been more than one or two days (hours?) old. It was the smallest calf this guide have ever seen and it never left the mothers side. A very cute and adorable start of this tour. We then joined the 09:00 tour and the humpback whale that they were looking at. It was a difficult humpback spending long time under the surface and only taking one breath when it surfaced. At the end we were lucky to have it close to the boat on two occasions! Before we reached the humpback we had another pod of dolphins 20-25 individuals spread over an area, doing what dolphins does best, jumping around and just living life! On our way back we had a very good meeting with a pod of 4-5 harbour porpoises and also a minke whale, making this a four species tour! We returned to harbour after a very successful tour out in the bay this morning. Over and out!

- Marcus Bergström 

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: We started this day with a little bit of wind but calm sea. Luckily the fog we had to face yesterday was gone completely and we could enjoy the views of the Icelandic landscape while sailing out into Faxa bay. After only half an hour of sailing, we encountered a pod of 6-8 white-beaked dolphins and could see these beautiful animals surfacing in front of us. At the same time we also spotted a minke whale and saw it surfacing a couple of times. However, both the dolphins and the minke whale seemed to be a bit elusive, so we continued our drive out into the bay to search for more wildlife. And for sure we were not disappointed. We saw more dolphins in the distance and then actually spotted the blow of a humpback whale. It had been a couple of days since we had seen a humpback whale for the last time, so the passengers and we (the crew) were really happy to see this individual. The whale moved considerably slow and seemed to be resting, but we still saw it coming up a few times and could get an idea of how large these marine mammals can be. Then it was time for us to head back to the old harbour of Reykjavik. On our way back we saw another pod of white-beaked dolphins, at least 10-12 individuals. They came really close to the boat, so that we could see their beautiful colloration. A great ending to a very nice tour this morning.

-Barbara Neubarth

Bird species seen on today´s tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, kittiwake, arctic tern, arctic skua, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, razorbill and eider duck.