Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Today we will be operating 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

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: We didn't have to travel far for our cetacean sightings today; most of our encounters were within half an hour sailing from the city! It was not long past Viðey before we saw a pod of white-beaked dolphins jumping high out of the water. Among the dolphins we also saw a big blow - surely this was bigger than the blow of a dolphin, but it even looked bigger than the blows of our regular baleen whale species. We were thrilled to discover this blow was created by a fin whale! As fin whales are the second biggest baleen whale in the world, it was impressive to see this cetacean swimming among the leaping dolphins. While we waited for the whale to surface between dives, the hundred white-beaked dolphins provided us a great show as well as they were feeding in association with seabirds all around us. After a while we left the fin whale in search for a humpback that our crew had spotted earlier on. The humpback whale was even closer inland, feeding very calmly and sometimes showing us its fluke. We didn´t recognise the unique pattern on the underside of this fluke, so it looks like this was a new individual visiting the bay. We stayed with this humpback for some time, in the meantime still enjoying the leaping dolphins that seemed to be everywhere we looked today. This was such a unique and special tour, one that the crew and hopefully our passengers will not soon forget. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: After such a nice tour this morning, we left the harbour in high spirit, eager to see more. It was not as sunny as on the previous tour, but still we had good visibility and the scenery was great. All the conditions for a good whale watching trip were set. After nearly 1 hour searching we finally saw some black backs even further out. We soon saw the fins were from a pod of white-beaked dolphins. When we got closer we saw this was an small pod of about 4 individuals that seemed to be feeding first but then just traveled slowly while staying close together. We spent a while with these dolphins before moving on. Then it took only about 15 min until a huge blow appeared not too far away from the boat. As we slowed down to check it out, we found that it was a humpback whale! We could have great views of the humpback when it surfaced between going for very short dives. It was just amazing following it with the charming landscapes that we had on the tour today, and we could really hear every breath it took because there was almost no wind. We think that this beautiful animal was probably resting as it was swimming very slowly. We made lots of pictures and we could even verify that it was the same individual as on the 9 am tour. Just before we had to turn back to go home, the humpback whale gave us waving goodbye with it's fluke while it was going for another dive. Truly amazing day! 

- Estel Sanchez Cami

Black-legged kittiwake, black-backed gull, European shag, northern fulmar, common guillemot, eider duck.