tuesday, 18 august 2015

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: What an amazing tour!!!!! We had a pretty windy and rainy tour this afternoon starting from Reykjavík. The wind made it more bumpy than the previous tours but it was still enjoyable and fun! It took a while to find cetaceans but then we found the best humpback whale in the world. When we spotted it from far away we saw a few big splashes and then the whole body of the animal as it was jumping out of the water. As we slowly came closer it was also slapping with its pectoral fins on the water surface (pec-slapping). It calmed down a bit for a while and was slowly traveling next to us when suddenly of group of 2-3 white-beaked dolphins showed up and started leaping around the humpback whale and following it. It was fun to watch these two species together until the dolphins vanished as quickly as they had appeared. After that the humpback became more active again and started breaching and head-slapping - a total of 38 during the tour!!! It was putting on a great show for us and I am sure that our passengers fell in love with humpback whales today! 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Still with nice sea conditions we sailed in very high hopes after a good morning. On this tour we got to see two separate pods of white-beaked dolphins, one was just 3 individuals and the other was larger at 8 individuals. The first was a little curious of the boat as they swam to us and appeared close to us, one decided to start leaping into the air very close to us giving us some perfect photo opportunities. The second pod was just perfect as these guys were incredibly playful, spending around 15 minutes bow riding and wake riding alongside the boat. These dolphins were clearly having as much fun as us! In between these sightings we found a humpback whale that was the same individual as in the morning, þröstur. Þröstur was resting and so for around 30 minutes we watched the whale swimming slowly through the area, but as the whale was so close and the water so clear we could see the entire whale under the surface and always know where it would surface next. The highlight was when it decided to dive very acrobatically, throwing its body and tail out from the water very high into the air and ending with a huge splash as it hit the water. During the tour we also saw around 4 minke whales which were never very visible but could be seen whenever they decided to surface. So a three species tour with two of them being excellent.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sea conditions were still pretty good this afternoon. The wind had picked up a little bit but since we were going with the wind in the beginning, our way out in to the bay was still nice and dry. It didn't take too long on this tour to find our first minke whale "Mark" which has been seen in Faxaflói every single summer since 2008. We spent a few minutes with it and then moved on and soon found a pod of 6-7 white-beaked dolphins. They seemed a little shy first but then they came close to us, swam underneath our boat and everyone could get a look at this beautiful dolphin species. Just when we were about to leave them, another minke whale popped up out of nowhere. As we were waiting for it to come up again, the dolphins came close again and stayed around us a little longer. After a few minutes we could also see the minke again in some distance. However, we moved on the find the humpback whale "Þröstur" again, and could soon see a few blows a few hundred meters away from us. As we got closer, we could watch it traveling slowly next to us without going or deep dives. A very relaxed encounter with Þröstur and on the way back to the harbour we spotted two more minke whales. 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 10:00

Report from Eldey: Nice calm seas continued to bless us for this mornings journey giving us great conditions for spotting whales. The bay was full of life today both in whale and bird format as we saw thousands of feeding birds across this journey. This clearly meant there was a lot of fish around the bay today which is great sign that there will also be plenty of whales to view. We had heard reports from other boats about a humpback whale in an area so we sailed straight there to view this whale. This was the individual known as þröstur which we have seen regularly for months now. This whale was very calm at the surface as we travelled alongside it, we were able to spend a long time with this whale because it was never diving for a long time and was lifting the tail high into the air whenever it chose to dive. While we were watching this whale we could see a pod of white-beaked dolphins further away which was 5-6 individuals large and we also saw a couple of minke whales in the surrounding area too. Though we never got close to these animals we at least got two more species in the distance.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Elding: Due to a high number of passengers we went out on two boats this morning. The weather was pleasant out on the bay, low wind speed, cloudy sky but fortunately it kept dry until the very end of the tour when we were already on our way back. We split up to cover a bigger area but both headed to the area where we have been getting great sightings lately. Hafsúlan was first to spot a minke whale that was rather elusive but only few minutes later Elding found a pod of 5-6 white beaked dolphins. These dolphins were amazing, they played around our boat for at least ten minutes showing off. While we watched the dolphins around our Elding we saw a humpback whale that we recognize as Þröstur. The humpback was feeding under a massive flock of sea birds. When Hafsúlan came to see Þröstur Elding kept on going and found two other minke whales that were both very elusive. Later Hafsúlan found thee minke whales they could recognize as our regular minke whales that we call, Mc fly, Mark and Háski. It is always great to see so much life in Faxaflói. 

- Sigurlaug and Megan.

Bird species seen on today´s tours: northern fulmars, northern gannets, kittiwakes, lesser black-backed gulls, Atlantic puffins, arctic skuas, arctic terns, common guillemots, razorbills, phalaropes and manx shearwaters.