Tuesday, 26 July 2022

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

Report from Eldey: our journey looking for our Faxaflói stars today started with a cold wind, but our overalls kept us warm and ready for our adventure. Going further away from the harbour, we got to an area where we could see many flocks of birds, feeding and resting. That was the moment where we saw a blow close to one of the flocks, and there it was: our first humpback whale! We came closer to it, and we could also see 2 minke whales at the same area. The humpback showed its fluke several times, indicating that it was taking deeper dives, but it spent less than 3 minutes underwater, for our surprise. However, this one disappeared underwater and, when we were almost going to explore another area, we saw another humpback not far from us. This one was another individual because it had a different pigmentation pattern on its fluke! And it was very active, performing bubble nets and coming closer to the boat. With this amazing sighting, we headed back home very satisfied and happy with this morning tour.

- Milla Brandao

Report from Hafsúlan: With low southerly wind we had a calm morning in Faxaflói bay, but there was a bit of swell in the sea to remind us that we are in Iceland. After less than an hour we arrived to an area where a humpback whale, 2 white-beaked dolphins and a minke whale were feeding. The sighting was fantastic, because while we were waiting for the humpback to resurface between dives, the dolphins and minke whale kept us busy. Sometimes the dolphins were even leaping in the air, or coming right up to our boat to keep us some company. Later on, the dolphins were on another mission: to play with/annoy the humpback whale. They were jumping all around the humpback and lucky for us, everything happened right next to our boat. Some time passed and the humpback went back to feeding, right underneath a big flock of seabirds. At some point the humpback lunged most of its body out of the water, to take in a huge amount of fish and show us the impressive body size. We then left to explore two minke whales that were a bit further away and got some nice looks at those smaller whales before we headed back to Reykjavík.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Eldey : It was a cloudy and cold afternoon, but it did not dissuade us from going on a tour. Soon after going out we did notice some splashes in the distance ... it was a breaching whale. As we got closer we got to have a really nice look on this individual, we recognized this humpback whale as one we name Pep. Last time it had been seen is last November, how cool is it to see again that whale in the Bay. Pep surfaced some times really close to our  boat behind the icelandic flag, we got to observe its  pretty fluke a few times as it went down in deeper dives. We also saw 2 minke whales in that area, one of them really close to us feeding under a flock of bird. How nice is it to observe 2 species at the same time. After some time we then headed to the harbour, got a fast glimpse of another blow of a humpback whale not too friendly around the boat, and got back to Reykjavik.

- Melanie Magnan

Report from Hafsulan: We went back into the bay very optimistic after this morning tour. The sea was still calm even though the wind picked up a little bit during the tour and that we had a few drops of rain towards the end. We did not need a lot of time to have our first sighting, a humpback whale very active lob tailing and slapping the water with its tail. We admired this impressive show with our eyes peeled, listening the strongs claps produced by the impact of the whale tail on the surface. Because of the acrobatic behaviour of this whale, we could see the underside of it and see that it was likely to be a male. There was other boats in the area so we did not insist and went further out to try to find other species. We crossed and stopped to observe 5 different minke whales, sometimes surfacing right next to the boat, sometimes a bit further away. Watching the whales and hearing the blows, we also started smelling many times the stinky breath of the minke whales, experiencing the whales with a third sense. Then, we spotted a second humpback whale that we quickly recognized. It was Pep, a very nice individual that we started seeing last summer and that reappeared in Faxafloi for the first time this morning. We went back home, talking about conservation and very happy after such a nice tour. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: This evening was very wet with a heavy rain falling on the boat during the whole tour. The wind picked up a bit creating many white caps at the surface of the sea. We went out hoping to find nice whales even though the visibility was not the greatest with all the rain and the wind. We saw from a kilometer away a big splash and of course went there hoping to see what was producing such big splashes. It was a very well known humpback whale that we like to call Pep, doing majestic breaches, leaping completely out of the water! Meanwhile we approached the humpback changed a bit its behaviour and was showing us the full repertoire of acrobatic behaviour. Peduncle throw, tail slapping, pectoral slapping, rolling, fluke dive and even a very stylish and original rotating fluke dive. When the humpback was going for a dive we were excited to see if maybe it would breach. We were so happy and impressed when we saw the humpback breaching so close of our boat. With all this excentric behaviour we could see the underside of the humpback and it seems that Pep is a female. In the same area we also quickly spotted a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins and 2 minke whales but the humpback whale focusing all of our attention so we did not see them a lot. We went back home under the rain. Tonight was one of those rare times we could be happy even with wet socks.

- Miquel Pons

Northern Gannet, black-legged kittiwake, Common guillemots, black guillemot, Atlantic puffins, Arctic skua, Manx shearwater, Sooty shearwater, greater and lesser black-backed gull, Arctic tern, storm petrel