WEDNESDAY, 31 May 2017

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: The last tour today was also the most fun tour today. After about one hour of sailing, a minke whale popped up just 150 m away from us! We slowed down to spend some time with this animal, and our patience was rewarded very soon. We saw it a few more times and after one of the dives it came up just 20 m or so away from us. Awesome! While watching the minke we noticed a group of dolphins jumping in the distance. Therefore, we left the minke to get a look at those white-beaked dolphins, a group of ca. 6 individuals. They stopped jumping and got pretty curious, we had them swimming around us and bow-riding as well giving everyone lots of opportunities to take pictures. After a while with these dolphins, we moved on but just minutes later we came across another pod (group) of these dolphins, this time 7-8 of them. In the beginning they were jumping as well and then they also showed their very inquisitive nature and came up very close, including a couple of calves that were in the group. The moms of the calves seemed to be very relaxed about our presence considering how close they came towards us with their little offspring. And when we thought that it could not get any better, a third group of dolphins showed up! This group consisted of ca. 12 individuals and there were at least 4 very small calves that swam all around us and really checked us out. They were in a great mood and one of the calves jumped out of the water repeatedly and the rest of the group was all over the place. Wherever we were looking, there were dolphins around and this is how we spent the rest of the tour until time was running out. On the way back we got to see around 10-20 harbour porpoises and also a short glimpse at another minke whale. 

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: The weather was still fantastic and the conditions perfect for spotting cetaceans. We headed to the areas where we saw the minkes and dolphins on the previous tour. On the way out we spotted 2 pods of harbour porpoises. These small cetaceans can be looked at as practice for spotting the species that we want to spend more time following on the tours. While watching he porpoises we spotted our first minke whale in almost 1 kilometer distance. We saw 3 other minke whales on the tour. They were rather elusive although we got a good look at them a few times. One humpback whale was also seen on the tour. Unfortunately, that whale was very elusive and went for longer than 10 minute dives. We saw it a few times but always in more than 5-600 meters distance. 

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsulan: The summer has finally arrived and so have the nice days out at sea. After about an hour of sailing in a completely calm sea, we came across a minke whale! This individual was slowly traveling and came up a lot of times in a row to take a breath and kept a constant direction which made it perfect to take pictures. We were able to follow this minke for a while and also noticed some splashes a bit further in the distance. These splashes were caused by dolphins jumping out of the water. Then they headed over to us until we had the dolphins on one side of the boat and the minke whale on the other. We were looking from one side to the other trying to watch both species at the same time. The minke swam underneath the dolphins and headed away from us, so that we could focus on the 6 white-beaked dolphins that were swimming around us. We spent a good amount o time with the dolphins and even recognized one of them that we call "Funny". When we left this group of dolphins, it only took a few minutes until we found another group of them. They were a bit more scattered over a large area, but there were probably 10-15 individuals around. We just spend a couple of minutes with them and on our way back to the harbour stopped at an area with two more minke whales that seemed to be feeding in the area with a lot of birds around! Many minkes and dolphins with amazing sea conditions and even a few shy harbour porpoises that we got to see in the end of the tour.  

- Hanna Michel

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, black-headed gulls, black guillemot, arctic skua, cormorants, common guillemot, Atlantic puffin, arctic tern, and eider ducks. 

STATUS: RUNNING

We are running our tours today from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík. We're expecting calm seas and the sun is shining. We look forward to welcome you on board!