Tuesday, 05 August 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The rain stopped before our tour started, so we found again great conditions of a calm, flat sea. We were hoping to find the food rich area from the tour before and after a while we reached it. A lot of seabirds were around like black-backed seagulls following one of the 6 minke whales and plunge feeding northern gannets. But our focus laid on the cetaceans. We had them all around us and we had to decide were to look at. Out of this 6 we recognized "Aura", "Cici" and "Humpie" and as we watched them we observed different behaviours like milling, feeding, lunging and even once a rolling when half of the tail fluke was visible above water. As we enjoyed this extraordinary situation the first pod of up to 7 harbour porpoises was seen probably feeding among them and as everybody was moving we started the engine again and moved a bit along with "Humpie" and there we met "Base Sqn". After a while there were splashes a bit further away so we steered towards the jumping and breaching white-beaked dolphins. They soon stopped but we still could see their dorsal fins but as the started travelling in a spread out formation of around 9 individuals away from us and the minkes "blocked" our way so we just spend some more time in this area observing minkes which sometimes were very close and we heard them all around us. In total we spent 1 hour around these great minkes we even smelled from time to time. In between this sighting we saw again 3-4 harbour porpoises and all with an orangy patch of light at the horizon. On the way back we met another pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises and even one more minke. Such an amazing day!

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 14:00Report from Elding: we had a total of 3 minke whales on this tour, all feeding in a leisurly manner in waters that, based on the onboard fishfinder, were chock-full of fish to feed on, most likely Lesser Sandeel. The birds seemed to appreciate this too, in particular the Northern Gannets and the Manx' Shearwaters. After about half an hour with the first astonishing minke, we went a very short distance to spend time with two others that were behaving the same. Remarkably, it was almost as if they were in contact with each other as to what to do. At least once they surfaced exactly at the same time almost next to each other and for much of the time we spent with them, they were so close that having to divide one's attention was not an issue! A wonderful tour indeed, even if slightly windier than this morning.- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Very little wind and no swell greeted us again so we had an easy job in spotting even the smallest of the cetacean out in Faxaflói. So we started with a sightings of 3 harbour porpoises then there was appearing our first minke whale then again another pod of 3 harbour porpoises then again another minke and later we entered in minke paradise where there were 5 minkes and another 3 harbour porpoises among these feeding minkes and all the seabirds. Of these minkes we recognized "Cici" and "Base Sqn". It was just great to not to have been whale waiting in between the diving intervals but just to turn our heads and to look at an other cetacean. Especially the third pod of harbour porpoises was spectacular as the two adults, which were already very small in cetacean terms, brought along their tiny calf and they came closer and closer to our silent boat with the engine off and swam straight towards us and appeared then at our back again. Unusual to be able to see the porpoises so well and so many minkes in a small area full of fish and birds we enjoyed it to the utmost.

- Carine Zimmermann

Tour at 10:00Report from Skrúður: we encountered one minke whale enroute to the other boats but decided to leave it and continue as the others had white-beaked dolphins and we did not want to miss them. It was a pod of 10-12 and they seemed to be foraging as some would speed up together as in driving fish while some would be sticking around in a distance in front of them as if doing the ambushing. In between they stopped and zig-zagged as if they were enjoying the fruits of their effort. We did not want to disturb them though for long as they were engaged in something so important to them so we went in search of a minke whale. We saw one but lost it, however soon we found a third one, a whale-watcher's dream. To an extend though, the animal did spend a lot of time under the surface, but when it did come up, it was beyond calm; the best of our 3 minke whales on this tour.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: The water was almost like a mirror and the slight cloud cover made the conditions excellent for whale watching. Already early up in the tour we spotted our first cetacean, a harbour porpoise. However, as it is the habit of harbour porpoises, these animals disappeared just as quickly as the appeared. Only minutes after we observed a minke whale. After this individual surfaced several times, we left to look for some white-beaked dolphins further in the distance. The 2 dolphins were milling for quite some while but then sped up and tracking them became more difficult. Thus, we directed our attention towards 2 other minke whales close to Akranes. One of the individuals turned out to be 'Humpie', a whale that was seen every year since 2011 and has a distinct dorsal fin due to the fact that a huge chunk is taken out at the top of the dorsal fin. Another minke whale then suddenly surfaced as close as 20m from the boat and repetitively surfaced in relative proximity to the boat. Lastly, we got word of another pod (8-10) of white-beaked dolphins, which we followed for a while. While watching the dolphins a few (3-4) harbour porpoises and another minke whale surfaced before we headed back to the harbour.

-Dominik Schmid

Birds seen on today's tours include: Arctic terns, northern gannets, puffins, lesser black-backed gulls, black guillemot, common guillemot, manx shearwaters, arctic skua, great skua and fulmars.