Tuesday, 10 June 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: we went out and along the way listened to some stories on the radio of how many whales of how many species were being seen out there, thinking we'd have to take them with a pinch of salt as it sounded as if the captains were just joking between themselves. However, the sight of two massive blows in some distance made us think for a while that maybe they hadn't been joking. We were hoping the Sei Whales were back or possibly it was Fin Whales but we never saw them again and it may just have been large Minke Whales, for there were plenty of them about, at least 7-9 in total, including at least two resightings, 'Midi' and 'Short Sword'. As before, we had some good things going on as the whales were feeding, particulary memorable is to see one Minke swimming so close to the surface that we could well make out the white stripe on its pectoral fins, which is something you don't get to see every day!

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 14:00

Report from Skrúður: The seas were extremely calm this afternoon allowing fantastic visibility. Quite quickly we managed to spot our first Minke Whale of the tour. This individual was very calm and surfaced in a very regular breathing pattern. We got some very good looks at it and it swam quite close to us and we were able to see the top of the head and the blowholes as it surfaced. Throughout the tour we found a few more minkes though they were quite elusive. Then as we neared the end of the tour we spotted a familiar dorsal fin. It turned out that we had again found the same individual that we had spotted at the beginning of the tour. It had very distinct nicks in the dorsal fin and came quite close on both occasions allowing us to indentify this individual. A very fun tour and always interesting to be able to spot the same individual twice.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: the sea was totally calm and the wind was next to none but it was absolutely pouring down with rain when we left. While it cleared up about half an hour into the tour, it started to rain again a few times, hence somewhat impacting our pleasure with being outside. The sightings started with Harbour Porpoises, perhaps one pod of about 10-12 animals but they vanished very soon. We saw there here and there until about half of the tour but then none. The first 3-4 Minke Whales we saw were only seen once or twice in a distance but then we found 1-2 very cool ones that were anything but afraid of the boat, coming very close with the blow being both fairly well seen and heard even better. The last Minke made us almost forget about the rain! We ended by taking a relaxed trip to the south and then towards the city.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: With the weather being much the same as this morning we headed out onto the bay to begin our search. Very soon we happened upon some Harbour Porpoises who were quite social and swam up quite close to us. As with most porpoise encounters however it was brief and we headed further out, hoping to find some larger cetaceans. We were not dissapointed and a Minke whale was spotted in short order. Not long after we spotted the first minke whale we spotted around 3 others at least. Theses animals were all quite social and swam pretty close to us show feeding like behaviour, moving fast and changing direction often. We then headed a bit further out hoping to spot some larger cetaceans. Just as we were about to turn back we spotted some tall fins which belonged to a large pod of White-beaked Dolpins, perhaps around 10-20 of them. They were all very social and swam extremely close to us, coming up to within a few metres from us. An awsome expirience all around!

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather this morning was dominated by a light easterly wind, but sunshine in between short periods of cloud cover. The vessel headed out only about 20 minutes from the harbor when we spotted the first Minke Whale in the distance. However, the individual only surfaced once before disappearing from our view. Two more were observed a bit further out, but again stayed at a distance to the vessel and dove down quite fast after the first sightings. Intermittently some Harbour Porpoises popped up but vanished just as fast as they appeared. Then another Minke Whale surfaced and came as close as 75m from the vessel. The individual surfaced along the left side of the boat for several times until it must have dove beneath it and surfaced to the right again. Later one the researchers were able to identify this individual as Tap. When a couple of Harbour Porpoises surfaced almost synchronously with the Minke Whale a excellent whale watching morning was complete.

- Dominik

Birds spotted on todays tours: Puffin, Gannet, Razorbill, Guillemotte, Black Guillemotte, Skua, Fulmar, Arctic Tern, Common Eider Duck.