Thursday, 8 May 2014

Tour at 13:00:

Report from the Hafsúlan: This afternoon the vessel sailed out into the Bay of Flaxafloí with light rain and overcast skies. The search for marine mammals has proven to be more difficult this afternoon as birds were rarely encountered and thus couldn't be used as indicators for shoals of fish near then surface. Nevertheless, we were able to spot one Minke Whale early in the tour and it came as close as 50 meters to the individual. As we were soon to find out due to excellent pictures from our researchers, this individual was called Jan and last seen in 2010. When Jan submerged finally for an extended period, we started looking for other cetacean species throughout the bay. Intermittatly, Harbour Porpoises started popping up but disappread just as quickly. Later on we could point out another 2-3 Minke Whales. However, the individuals seemed to keep themselves at a distance, concerned more with traveling and searching for food rather than people watching. The low numbers of birds and the behaviour of the whales, maybe indicative for a low and scattered amount of food.

-Megan and DominikTour at 9:00:

Report from the Hafsúlan: Almost perfect whale watching conditions awaited us this morning as the sea was clear as glass, which would make spotting an easy task. In fact we encountered about 10-20 Harbour Porpoises around some resting birds only 30 minutes out into the bay. Soon enough two Minke Whales were spotted in the distance. We followed those individuals around, just to encounter another Minke Whale slowly surfacing in close proximity to the vessel. At one stage, we had about 20-30 Harbour Porpoises milling around in a vast area in front of the boat and Minke Whales in the distance. We then got word of a 3 very interactive White-beaked Dolphins. We approached the small pod and found the dolphins to be playful and even leaping out of the water to show off their perfectly streamlined and gray-white coloured bodies. All in all, a very successful tour.

-Dominik and Megan

Birds seen on today tour include: Northern Gannet, Northern Fulmar, Arctic Tern, Atlantic Puffin, Guillemot, Eider Duck, Black-Backed Gull, Kittiwake, Razorbills, Arctic Skua.