Wednesday, 4 August 2021
✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00
Report from Eldey: Weather was pretty good for whale watching today. Flat seas and no fog made the search for whales easier than many other days in the bay. After a relatively short 45 minutes time we encountered our first whale of the tour. A humpback whale showing us its fluke a few times made clear to us it was also very relaxed and up to its own thing which I suspect basically was some bottom feeding. People got a great view on this one. In order to leave this animal in more peace we decided to give a try a bit further where we found another humpback whale and a pod of 5-6 white beaked dolphins. These animals were socialising, playing around and showing us a wide range of moves, including rolling, breaching in the case of the dolphins and some fin slapping. It was certainly one of my best sightseeing tours this year.
- Jorge Pascual
✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 10:00
Report from Þrauma RIB: It was a lovely start of the day to see howe calm the sea was, only slight wind from the SE and very long swells which were only really noticeable further out into the bay. We started our tour, as we usually do, with the puffins on Engey Island and then headed straight out to one of our Elding Classic Vessels, Elding that had found a humpback whale. At first the whale was relaxed, surfacing regularly and always showing its fluke as it went for a deeper, longer dive. Then a few dolphins showed up, a small pod of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins that swam right to the humpback. Where these dolphins going to play or annoy the whale, we were wondering. The humpback started to roll and flipper slap but all of it seemed to be in a playful manner. Another pod of 5-6 dolphins also came to join in after a little while, some even came to play with us and blew bubbles next to our boat. Unfortunately, this was peeking the interest of other whale watching boats nearby and so more were starting to arrive to watch the commotion. We decided to leave to minimise the boat traffic as by this time we had already had a wonderful encounter. We tried to look for more on the way home but time was running a little short.
- Megan Whittaker
✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE 13:00
Report from Eldey: Unbelievable conditions once again. The sea really couldn't have been smoother and the overcast sky meant that wildlife would be easy to locate. Heading out into the bay, the view of a humpback whale was noticeable from a large distance. As we approached, we watched the whale come to the surface many times before lifting the fluke for a deep dive. In total, we saw four complete surface sequences. Being wary of our time with the individual, we continued our search for other cetacean activity, finding a pod of 7-8 white-beaked dolphins that were very calm around the boat. They slowly approached and investigated briefly, then casually moving on their way.
- Mike Smith
✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 14:00
Report from Þrauma RIB: The sea was probably at its calmest now to the point it was reflecting the shapes and colours of the clouds with slight ripples. It was absolutely beautiful. We started with the puffins at Engey and then travelled into the bay for about 10mins to find a socialising pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins mainly socialising between themselves and not very interested with us, after a little while we moved on and found an area with a humpback whale and minke whale that looked to be heading to a large flock of seabirds. We only saw the humpback surface once and even though we waited for a long time it didn’t show up again. Instead we decided to follow the minke whale and got a very nice encounter from it in the mirrored sea surface.
- Megan Whittaker
✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 16:00
Report from Þrauma RIB: It was a little chillier on this tour as the wind picked up a little. Once again we stopped off at the puffins and then headed further out into the bay to see what nature had inshore for us this afternoon. We got to see three different pods of white-beaked dolphins, the first pod had about 5-7 individuals with tiny calves so they were a little protective and wouldn’t let us get close so we didn’t stay long with them, then a pod of 2 dolphins that came and went but the third pod was awesome. They were bow-riding, leaping and twisting the air and were just sooooo much fun to watch. We tried looking for whales but none could be located, we did see however puffin chicks out in the bay. Sooo cute. We were so happy nonetheless with the amazing encounter we had with the incredible dolphins this afternoon.
- Megan Whittaker
✔ CLASSIC MIDNIGHT WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 19:00
Report from Eldey: This tour looked promising from the very beginning. Although we lost hope a few times in our search for cetaceans. It took us about 1 and a half hours to find a very performative humpback whale. At first we saw it from the distance, not showing much of its actual size but as we were moving closer we smoothly started to get a bigger picture. What we did not expect was how huge it would get. It started breaching almost like non stop about 5 times in a row, taking deep breath in between. It seemed to be very needed of that. Quite impressive to hear how energetic those blows were. It did not take it very long to display another range of different behaviours. Tail slapping was at times very insisting by this whale. It made me wonder why would it do it like that. There were pretty strong and loud. After that more breaching and deep dives in the end. Unfortunately, we had to more time to spend with this animal as it took us that long to find we had to head to back home.
- Jorge Pascual
✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 20:00
Report from Þrauma RIB:There was terrencial rain for the run up to this evening tour that may have detered passengers for coming out with us, however for those that are familiar to the saying “if you don’t like the weather in Iceland wait 5min”. The rain stopped and we had the most beautiful amazing tour. The sea was like a mirror that reflected the colourful sunset colours onto the waters surface. It did take us a while to find our first cetacean but we were enjoying the seabirds including the very cute Atlantic Puffins. Then another whale watching vessel let us know of a humpback whale they found. On the way we were seeing huge splashes and as we got closer we saw the humpback tail slapping, lob tailing and it even breaching. It was just amazing to see the whale surfacing in the sunset. On the way home we found a very interactive pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins that swam so close we could almost touch them, playing under and around the boat. A perfect end to a fantastic tour.
- Megan Whittaker
Bird Species ID´d today: Northern Gannet, Atlantic Puffin, Common Guillemot, Arctic tern, Arctic skua, Northern Fulmar, Kittiwake, Eider Duck, great-black backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull.
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.