Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: we headed out towards where we had had the numerous dolphins on the morning tour. The conditions were very good still but there was a bit more swell. However, we sailed through that area and onwards without seeing any dolphins. Then Captain Vignir said he thought he had seen a back with a fin in a distance. And indeed he had, not a dolphin though but the first minke whale this year! Yay! Winter is over and spring is here once the minkes are! However, this minke whale was somewhat elusive, we only saw it a few times and only the first time very well, but good to have them back though! A total of 6-8 harbour porpoises in lots of 2-3 individuals each popped up during the tour but they were only seen briefly each. We were considering whether the encounters of the tour had been enough when a group of some 8-10 white-beaked dolphins was seen, and what a brilliant group. True, fewer than in the morning but less spread out, moving slower and more predictably also. We saw them so well and enjoyed them so much that if it hadn't been for that we were well out of time, we would have stayed longer with them. Enroute back to Reykjavik we saw some more dolphins in a distance, including one jumping, but could not stop for them.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: what a beautiful day on the water; the stormy season of late has really taught us to appreciate days like these. We sailed out amongst the astonishing snow-covered mountains under clear skies and began searching the calm waters. We first sailed in the direction of where the humpback whale had been seen last weekend but it seemed to have gone off. What was seen though and provided us with an amazing tour was a spread-out pod (~50 individuals?) of white-beaked dolphins which we found feeding among countless seabirds, primarily northern fulmars. Seabirds and cetaceans often have symbiotic relationships, using each other to locate and catch food, and it was clear in this case that this was exactly what the seabirds were doing, catching what the dolphins scared up to the surface. Once we left the area, we sailed past a fishing boat that was busy pulling in massive cods, which their captain told us were chock-full of capelin, good thing we have some capelin in the area as the whales and dolphins are where their food is, an old truth to that.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Birds seen on today's tours: northern fulmar, northern gannet, black-backed gull, glaucaus gull, black-legged kittiwake, eider duck, european shag.