Species seen today: Humpback whale, Minke whale, White-beaked dolphin

Birds seen today: Great cormorant, purple sandpiper, arctic tern, arctic skua, northern gannet, black guillemot, common guillemot, atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, great and lesser black back gull, herring gull, brent goose, eider duck

10:00 -  This morning we sailed into the bay with really good weather conditions, the birds were all over the place meaning there was a lot of fish in the bay, with the birds the puffins were having a really good time in the islands close to reykjavik today. Our search for cetacean life had started took some time until the first sighting but fortunately a humpback whale appeared in the distance. This individual didn't showed too much at the surface unfortunately and was doing very long dives and after some minutes disappeared. We still had some time and we went in the search for another individual after some time a humpback whale breached in the distance and we of course went to check it, this animal did different kind of behaviours tail throw, breaching and some beautiful fluke dives, the perfect way to finish the tour.

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Rodrigo

12:00 -  It was under grey skies that we started our tour. Puffins were everywhere around Akurey, 5 minutes after the harbour, definetely among the cutest birds on the planet. After a 40 minute ride some white beaked dolphins appeared by the boat, it was a pod of about 4 dolphins, with a juvenile. Great first sighting. Then we explored a bit more the area as we heard about humpback whales, we noticed a blow in the distance. Our first humpback whale was not so frtiendly, getting away from the boat so we moved to another area. Our second humpback whale gave us an amazing sighting, it was clearly feeding and unexpectedly appeared barely a few meters away from our starboard side. Amazing end of the tour.   

Crew: Captain Siggi & Guide Melanie

14:00 -  We started this afternoon´s tour with a quick stop at Akurey - the largest puffin colony around Reykjavík. We had some wonderful moments close with the Atlantic puffins and other beautiful seabirds before we set out into the bay. We encountered some swell on the way but the weather was beautiful and relatively warm. After some searching, we found a humpback whale! This individual was feeding, moving randomly and unpredictably around the area. We could observe it for some time and we were especially joyful when the whale lifted out its tailfin before going for deep dives. When we had been there for a while we decided to take a small detour to scan some other areas, and finally when our time was up we went back to Reykjavík. 

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Eline

16:00 - This afternoon we explored our beautiful bay in search for some wildlife. The first stop was at akurey to see some atlantic puffins. The island was full of them flying around and walking in land. Our search took longer than expected but eventually a minke whale appeared just passing but we could see all of the body wich is quite rare. More mike whales appeared around us some of them even feeding quite close to the boat. We continued the tour with hopes of finding the big ones. While searching for the humpback whales a dolphin jumped really close to the boat and did it multiple times wich was really nice. Unfortunately the humpback never appeared and we decided to give complementary tickets for the passengers to come again with us with hopes of seeing some more cetacean life. 

Crew: Captain Siggi & Guide Rodrigo

18:00 - There was barely any wind as we started our trip. The sea was super flat and shiny and melting in the grey of the sky. Just the ride in itself in the bay was absolutely beautiful. It did not take long for us to spot some white beaked dolphins. A pod of 4 individuals came to greet us and was calmly surfacing really close to the boat. We stayed with them for a while enjoying their beauty and calmness. We then continued our trip and saw the back of a few minke whales, they were also extremely calm and we saw 2 pretty well 50 meters away from the boat which is quite rare for this species. We continued a bit further and saw a humpback whale. We saw this beautiful individual raising its tail twice. We then continued a bit further as we saw another blow and arrived in an area where we saw one or two other humpback whales and so many minke whales surfacing around us. A white beaked dolphin even came to play for a moment around the boat as we were stopped in the area looking at the animals. We probably have seen 10 to 15 individuals minke whales including some barely a few meters away, and a humpback whale really close. Time to go home after all these animals, even though no one felt like it, it was a fantastic tour we got incredibly lucky

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Melanie

20:00 - The water was beautifully flat tonight and with the low sunlight we could see every dark silhouette on the surface. At first, we mainly saw the occassional seabird sitting on the ocean but as we moved further out we started seeing many minke whales as well. Because the minke whales were tricky to follow we ventured a bit further and encountered probably 30 or 40 white-beaked dolphins spread over the bay. Some were jumping in the distance, others just passing by, and some individuals even came to play with the boat and we ran from port to starboard and back again to follow them as they swam under us. We scanned the area thoroughly in the hopes of finding the humpback whale we had encountered before, but with no luck we returned towards Reykjavík. On the way, we were very happy to find that the tour wasn´t over when a humpback whale surfaced right underneath a large flock of birds. We saw the whale lungefeed and we got a good look at the beautiful fluke, and then it was really time to head back to the city. 

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Eline

Today we are running whale watching tours at 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600, 1700 & 2000, and puffin watching tours at 0900 & 1300.

For more information come see us at Ægisgarður 5D, email us at info@whalesafari.is

or call us at +354 497 0000