Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: As we sailed out into a peaceful evening in the bay, the sun was still shining through the clouds here and there. It did not take us too long to find our first Minke Whale, but unfortunately it was moving very quickly and disappeared before we got a close look. The next individual we found was not in a better whale watching mood either, so we kept moving on. And finally we found a minke whale that surfaced close to the boat a couple of times, offering some nice looks at this species. We then moved a bit further and met a pod of White-Beaked Dolphins (around 5-7 individuals) who also gave us a nice look while surfacing close to the boat. On the way back we crossed the path of another minke whale before enjoying the calm evening air for the rest of the trip. All in all a very successful day! - Linda

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather and sea conditions continued to be nice this afternoon. Our first discovery of the tour was a pod of Harbour Porpoises (at least 2), soon to be followed by 3 different Minke Whales throughout the course of the tour. We stayed with the first individual for almost an hour and got a lot of very close looks at the animal. Including its white patch on the pectoral fin under water – what a sight! Again, we were surrounded by many Northern Gannets (some making calls) diving into the water all around the boat and also spotted porpoises (2 or more) near the whale. The last minke we saw we were able to identify as “Happy”, an individual that we have been seeing regularly since 2008. - Carine

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Calm sea conditions, sunny weather and a nice view of the surroundings greeted us as we started our tour this morning. After some searching we found at least 2 pods of White-Beaked Dolphins, one of them approaching our boat very closely at times. This gave us some amazing looks at these animals - below as well as above the water surface! Soon, the area become quite active with about 20-30 diving gannets and about 5 scattered Minke Whales seen close and also in the distance. We stayed in this area until we saw a big splash accompanied by two little splashed and realised it was a Minke Whale playing with some White-beaked Dolphins. We thought at first the dolphins were annoying the whales as they sometimes do but when we saw the dolphins head away from the minke, the minke changed direction to join them again. Once the two species went their separate ways we did too, back towards Reykjavík harbour.  A playful and wonderful tour for all.  - Megan

Birds seen on todays tours include: Northern Gannet, Common Guillemot, Northern Fulmar, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Manx Shearwater, Atlantic Puffin