Wednesday, 08 July 2015

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The midnight sun tour did not disappoint as we saw the beautiful sun setting behind Snæfellsjökull and a warm northeasterly wind. The sea conditions on the way out was also good but it picked up on the way home. Once we got close to our most promising area we saw big blows about 2 miles away so we knew there were big whales in front. We saw at least 3 big blows (exhaled whale breath that look like small geysirs coming up from the waters surface) but all 3 in different areas. We chose the closest and confirmed it was a humpback whale, we watched it surface many times, having it coming close to the boat a few times and then towards the flocks of birds feeding. We tried to go and find another but this individual did not want to be seen so we left and headed home with the awesome Bjarni entertaining us with his talented guitar playing, great vocals and comedy act. A great tour. Hope they stick around for a while.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Our tour this afternoon was a bit rougher and bumpy due to some swell that had built up as the wind got stronger. We went to the same area where we had found a few minke whales in the morning, and soon spotted two of these whales. We saw them surfacing a couple of times but they seemed rather shy, and so we moved on. After sailing on for a while, we spotted another minke whale that surfaced a few times in front of us, when suddenly also a group of about 6-8 white-beaked dolphins showed up. There seemed to be a few groups of this dolphins in the larger area, we could see them all around our boat, a total of about 20 animals. At the same time we still had two minke whales nea us, that we decided to get a closer to. After we had spent a while with them, we decided to get a closer look at another group of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins, before heading back to the harbour.

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The sun was still shining its warm smile at us when we left again. This time we spotted a pod of 7 white beaked dolphins that swam around our boat and then had their fill of human spotting so we headed further north to try and locate some minke whales. We spotted 3 minke whales in the same area, one was far away and the other 2 were traveling together, probably a mother with a young adult, which is very special since minke whales area usually not social animals. We plotted around that area and came upon a pod of harbour porpoises that swam along our boat towards harbour. Then when the minke's had disappeared a pod of at least 8 white beaked dolphins appeared and swam around our boat. On our way back we also encountered 3 more minke whales so this was truly a minke filled day.

-Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The sun was shining this afternoon as we sailed from Reykjavík, making for great whale watching and sailing weather. Our first encounter with minke whale was a close one as one appeared just 80 metres from the boat out of nowhere! This was a whale we knew well as 'Spider' that we have seen every year since 2007. We saw around 5 more minke whales very well during the tour with some feeding and some just travelling. We also found 3 pods of white-beaked dolphins which totaled around 15-20 individuals. The dolphins were great as usual as they were very active around the boat, feeding and leaping and swimming underneath us. In the sunlight we could see the little blows from the animals being lit up high into the air, the benefits of summer whale watching. Add this to the flocks of hundreds of birds feeding and the bay was full of life today!

- Jack Ball

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: The summer days are treating us well so we headed out in sun and warm winds. We headed towards a promising area filled with birds and there we spotted 5-6 minke whales. The further we headed the more whales we spotted and at the end of the tour we'd spotted between 7-14 minke whales. When we go over photos of this tour we'll know whether or not we were spotting the same individuals in different spots or if there were really that many individuals there.

- Svala Jónsdóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The tour on this beautiful morning started with an encounter of 2-3 harbour porpoises after about 30 min of sailing from Reykjavík. We saw them surfacing a couple of times as they seemed to be traveling away from us, but we didn't slow down for this rather shy species. Instead, we kept looking for the larger species of cetaceans we frequently encounter, and after a while we spotted our first minke whale. As we were slowing down and approaching the animal carefully, we soon spotted at least 5 minke whales in the area around us. We just waited for them to come closer to us, and some of them surfaced within 80 m from our boat. After we had spent some time with these minkes, we decided to move on. And soon we headed towards an area where white-beaked dolphins had been seen earlier. And indeed, we managed to get a look at a small pod of 3 of these cool dolphins. Then we started our way back and saw more minke whales as we were slowly approaching the harbour. 

- Hanna Michel

Bird species seen on today´s tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmars, arctic terns, arctic skuas,  atlantic puffins, kittiwakes, razorbills, common guillemots, greater and lesser black backed gulls and manx shearwaters.