Wednesday, 13 April 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00

COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised. 

Report from Eldey: Its always amazing to see how the sea state changes depending on where you are, today it was rough and windy around the harbour and close by but the closer you got to Akranes the calmer and more sheltered it became. It was beautiful with sunny skies once we reached the whale watching area and the sun shining on the incredible landscape Iceland has to offer. Once reaching the area we have been visiting the last days we were able to encounter 3 different humpback whales, all behaving differently. One was lunge feeding and surfacing every 1-2 minutes, the other two were surfacing in more of a relaxed manner, probably resting. One surfacing every 3-4 minutes ad the other was super elusive and difficult to see, surfacing once or twice before diving for 5-7 minutes. None of them interacting with each other and probably with 500m-1000m from each other. It’s really interesting to see how differently they behaved from each other. Another species we saw that were very cute were the Atlantic Puffins, we are seeing more and more now as the season approaches.

- Megan Whittaker

Report from RIBs: Today the wind blew from the east at a moderate intensity, leaving us a little unsure how conditions would look in the bay. As we left the harbour, the sea state was a little choppy due to the short wave period of the wind driven swell. The waves heading out were no issue as we journeyed in the same direction. Upon arriving off the coast of Akranes, we watched a solitary humpback whale feed beneath a large group of seabirds made up of mainly kittiwakes. The birds provided a clear indication to the whales whereabouts grouping on mass whenever the whale was near the surface, ready to prey on the small fish that evaded the whales agape mouth. The humpback only had one thing on its mind and this was feeding. It would often rise for two or three breaths, slowly roll its back, exposing the fluke at the end and disappear to herd more fish out of sight, before returning with open jaws. It was a great sight to watch such a large animal feed undisturbed by our presence. When we decided to head home, the wind strength had increased, building a more sizeable wave that would sometimes splash some unlucky passengers. As the wind was scheduled to build for the rest of the day, we made the decision to cancel our 1400 departure.

- Mike Smith 

Report from Eldey: We headed out into the windy waters around Reykjavik, looking forward to trying to spot the whales that we saw in the morning. As Akranes came into view, we were sheltered from the winds but felt the first drops of rain. Luckily it didn't develop into anything heavy and all the weather was worth it when we spotted the blow of our first humpback whale in the distance! We stayed with this individual for a little while but as other boats started to join us, we followed our code of conduct and went to find one of the other individuals we had encountered in the morning so that the first humpback wasn't over-crowded. It didn't take long for us to spot a second humpback whale. This individual was a little harder to follow as it was taking longer dives so after watching it take a few deep dives, we decided to continue with our tour to see if we could spot something else. As we were deciding to head back to the harbour, we spotted the spray of a small pod of white-beaked dolphins swimming really fast through the water! They swam really close to the boat a couple of times, with the passengers being able to see the individuals through the water. What a great way to end the day!

- Emily Erskine

Great Cormorant, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, black-backed gull, glaucous gull, eider duck, Atlantic puffin.