Tuesday, 07 July 2015

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: We headed out under the glare of the midnight sun and as soon as we came out of the harbour we were greeted by a huge flock of birds. There were birds every way we looked but the minke whales were feeling extra sneaky so we didn't spot any of them on this tour. The extra special white beaked dolphins we encountered completely made up for the lack of minke. We spotted jumping dolphins far off in the distance but when we came closer they had dissapeared. For a while I thought I'd immagined the whole thing but then a pod of 4 dolphins surfaced 20-30 m away from our boat and played around us for a while. Soon other pods showed themselves all around our boat and when we had our fill of dolphin watching the dolphins started foing flips, jumps and body slams. Soon all the jumping stopped and the dolphins swam away in the same direction at a fast pace so we think the slams and flips were a way of sincronizing the different pods before an attack. Such a magical display and on the way back we were joined by the tones from our magical mucician.

- Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On this still sunny and nearly cloudless evening we left the harbour to search for marine mammals again. We went straight to the area where we spotted a pod of white- beaked dolphins on our way back on the afternoon tour. Instead we found several minke whales, one animal in particular was a treat to watch, since it seemed to be resting, delivering us lots of opportunities to make pictures and getting a good look of this amazing creature. We followed it for a while, until we saw white - beaked dolphins in the distance. Straight away we traveled in the direction of these animals hoping to get a good look at them. But unfortunately they vanished just as fast as we spotted them, so we kept on going west. Didn't take us long to spot a different pod of dolphins, and again, they behaved shy and elusive, so we kept on going, since we didn't want to stress them out. After a short while we finally found a pod less shy, where we had the opportunity to get some good pictures, until we had to turn around to go back to the harbour. Estimating around 3 minke whales and around 20-30 white- beaked dolphins.

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: After applying copious amounts of suncream, We made our way on to the beautiful bay of faxafloi. The sun was burning down and we had no wind and calm seas. This meant our visibility was very good. While enjoying the amazing landscape I spotted a feeding minke whale that was soon joined by two others. We stayed in place as the minkes gradually came closer and closer to us. We eventually left the minkes to their feeding and moved on to find other animals. We were very lucky and spotted a large pod of white beaked dolphins with about 10 individuals. They were possibly resting/sleeping as they were not particularly active but it did mean they approached us quite closely and slowly giving everyone fantastic views of their beautiful white backs. We left them too it and cruised back in slowly. On the way in we passed a few more minke whales and some more dolphins. What a stunning tour. 

- Tommy Torrades

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: On this beautiful and sunny afternoon we went out from Reykjaviks harbour in search of cetaceans. It didn't take long until we found several minke whales feeding on the large amounts of food in the harbour. After a short while we were surrounded by minke whales feeding in this area. We stayed for a while, until we wanted to look for other cetaceans. Just as we started to head west, we spotted a pod of white- beaked dolphins in several kilometers distance. When we reached the location with the pod of dolphins we found ourselves surrounded again, this time by dolphins. Throughout the tour we saw several more dolphins as well as whales, in total estimating around 6-10 minke whales. At some point we head to leave the animals behind to go back home. On our way we continued to spot dolphins everywhere, estimating a total of at least 3 different pods and around 30 individuals of white- beaked dolphins. 

- Michaela Buchbauer

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: This morning we went out in great weather and bright sun. Very few passengers needed to put on overalls and the see was calm. We headed out and spotted a minke whale 100m away from us with a group of birds. The minke swam a circle around our boat before dissapearing and it was joined by another minke about 700-800 m away from our boat once or twice. We headed further out. Encountered one more minke and a combined pod (at least 15 individuals) of very friendly white beaked dolphins that swam all around and under our boat. On our way back we encountered our last minke but it kept at a far distance away so we continued our journey back to harbour so as not to disturb the animal.

- Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We had a full boat as we made our way out in to the bay. There was a small amount of wind and chop which created a lot of whitecaps. Making spotting animals a little more difficult. But we lucked out and soon arrived among an area of 3 feeding minke whales. They came quite close and one of the individuals was discovered to be Haski. We stayed with the minkes until we spotted some breaching white beaked dolphins. As we approached the dolphins calmed down but we still had some awesome views as their beautiful white bodies came close to us. The pod had about 10 individuals in it. As we made our way back in to port we passed 2 more minkes. Not a bad way to start the day. 

- Tommy Torrades

Birds seen on todays tour include: kittiwakes, greater and lesser black-backed gulls, arctic terns, arctic skuas, great skuas, northern gannets, atlantic puffins, common guillemots, black guillemots, northern fulmars, european storm petrels, manx shearwaters.