Wednesday, 13 July 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 11:00, 14:00, 16:00, 18:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00 and 20:30 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 11:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 18:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

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. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.

Report from Hafsulan: Such very nice sea conditions this morning for this 9am tour. 20 minutes after leaving the harbour, we already spotted around 6 white beaked dolphins. The area was full of birds in differents patches and dolphins were in each of them.They were mostly surface feeding and when we got closer, they were more social, playful and did some bow riding. We kept following our road hopefully to spot more species or individuals. On the way, a lot of minke whales were surrounding us, around 6 minke whales. One surfaced very close to our boat, mostly surface feeding bu coming up at the surface to grap some fishes with the birds flying above it. On our way back to Reykjavik, a small group of 5 harbour propoises were spotted, travelling and 2 other minke whales feeding as well.

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Eldey: We started the day with beautiful sunshine, cloudless skies and calm seas. Shortly into the journey we spotted our first pod of about 15-20 white beaked dolphins that swam calmly alongside us and some even jumped out of the water and provided us with a beautiful sight in the calm and sparkly sea. Then not shortly after that, we spotted ourselves an "angle of the seas" a humpback whale that gave us multiple amazing fluke dives. In the distance we also saw some occasional minke whales that eventually came closer. We must have seen about 5 or 6 different individuals. After observing the minkes feed with some nice flocks of seabirds we headed home under a bright sunny sky.

- Milla Brandao

Report from Hafsúla: Winds had picked up a little from this morning but the weather still looked promising, and given our morning sightings we were all pretty confident that we could find some lovely whales. Soon after leaving port we passed our first minke whale, but knowing a humpback whale was in the bay we continued on until seeing its blow on the horizon. Approaching the lazy humpback we discovered it taking regular dives for 7 minutes and staying at the surface for 4 breathes, a common feeding behaviour seen in the bay. As more ships crowded around the poor animal however we decided to leave it alone and go see these dolphins we found a little further away from us. However as we approached the 10 white beaked dolphins with 4 calves avoided us, trying again we quickly realised that they did not want us there, likely trying to protect their newborns, and so we decided to leave these dolphins and head further out into the bay. Under massive flocks of birds we very quickly discovered many more minke whales, seeing about 3 more (4 total minke whales) feeding on the large amount of prey in the ocean. Then suddenly, amongst the sea of moon jellies, we spotted another pod of 12 white beaked dolphins, and this group was much happier to say hello to us. Approaching us they began to bowride us and fully leap out of the water, giving us a lovely view of their distinct white stripes. Despite this group also having 1 calf and 2 juveniles present they seemed to be comfortable with our present and the youngsters enjoyed playing in our waves and getting a good look at us. Sadly we didn't get to have more time with these dolphins and we did have to head home. 

- Liam van Walsum

Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, lesser and greater black backed gulls, Arctic tern, northern fulmar, Arctic skua, herring gull, black-legged kittiwake, northern gannet

Report from Eldey: When we left the port the weather was a good mix of sun and some little clouds. Our first cetacean we spotted was a humpback whale that went for some nice fluke dives. The crew recognized this whale, which had been sighted here in this bay last summer. After watching this magnificent creature in the vast ocean we found a couple of white beaked dolphins that came very close to our boat. The third species we found was a minke whale we got to admire from afar.

- Francesco Golin

Report from Hafsulan: Sea conditions were a bit more rough comparing to the morning so quite a bit tricky to spot the animals. After an hour being in the hotspot area, we sighted 1 humpback whale and 1 minke whale. We were trying to focus mostly on the humpback whale as the minke whale were tricky and not staying that long at the surface. After the humpback went for a deep dive, we were keep waiting more than 10 minutes and we did not see the humpback coming up the surface as we are always used to see it. On the contrary, the humpback was quite very tricky like the minke whale. We decided to follow our road instrad of waiting too much longer and we spotted again the humpback, I thing the same individual. This time, it was coming up more regularly at the surface and showed several times its fluke as it was mostly feeding. Another 1 minke whale came up sometimes at the surface in the area. When we were waiting for the humpback whale before heading back to Reykjavik, another 1 minke whale was breaching a but further away, around 700 metres from us. It breached twice. Instread of going close to the minke and as it did not breach again, we decided to stay with the humpback that came up again to the surface for few seconds and showed us one last time its fluke.

- Enorha Guimard