Species seen today: humpback whales, minke whales, white-beaked dolphins, harbour porpoises, Orcas

Birds seen today: Atlantic puffin, black guillemot, common guillemot, razorbill, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, great cormorant, greylag geese, common eider duck, Arctic tern, Arctic skua

10:00 - Today we sailed with some good weather conditions but cloudy as usual. After the first stop at akurey to see some atlantic puffins our cetacean tour started. Didn't took too long before we spot the first individual, 1 minke whale was around the boat, we could smell it very well. They are known as stinkie minkes because of the very powerfull scent of fish. Some white beaked dolphins were close to the minke so 2 of the common species were imediately spotted at the beggining of the tour. The humpback were difficult to spot but fortunately at the end we had one close to us, we only saw the fin of this individual but the very big blow didn't let any doubt that was indeed a humpback whale. The best way to finish the tour with the biggest of the 4 common species in the faxlafoi bay.

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Rodrigo

14:00 -  The sun was shining in the sea and the puffins were everywhere sometimes even to close appearing under the water. The dolphins and the minkes were everywhere in the bay, but again the humpback were a litle more tricky to find. We had some crazy dolphins jumping and prety close minke whales to the boat. At the end finally the humpbacks appeared and what a show they gave us. This animals were doing very nice fluke dives and some lunge feeding. When we started to head back to the harbour another humpback appeared in the distance doing some crazy tail slaps in the water so we went to check out. She wouldn't stop with the tail slaps so everyone was enjoying a lot but sadly we had to leave after some minutes, but couldn't end the tour in a better way.

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Rodrigo

16:00 - The sea got better and better this afternoon with a flat silver sea. It was actually not easy to see the difference between the sky and the ocean. We had a first sighting with a calm humpback whale slowly swimming and going for shallow dives. We saw it surfacing a few times before we decided to continue our tour. We visited different areas and crossed many animals! First a minke whale that we could see quite well, plus 2 more minkes in the distance. We saw 2-3 pods of white beaked dolphins from 5-7 individuals, one group was very active with individuals jumping on the side. We found a second humpback whale that was also quite chill. It went for a fluke dive showing us its tail. After all those wonderufl sightings we went back home. We could not believe when almost arrived to Reykjavik, we crossed a pod of 5-6 orcas!! They were right next to Akurey, the island that we visited to see the puffins in the start of the tour. We went very slowly and observed the huge dorsal fin of the male killer whale coming out of the water, followed by 2 or 3 females and a calf. Such a great sighting. We were late once we went back but very excited!

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Miquel

20:00 - It was raining a lot but we went for it anyway and got some nice rewards. Thousands of puffins were close to Akurey flying or swimming. Then we went further out, trying to find some cetaceans. We crossed 2 harbour porpoises that immediatly disappeared. We continued and needed some time before the next sighting. A nice minke whale that was relaxed and gave us a good sighting, surfacing a few times non far from us. We continued and crossed another minke and then a pod of 7 white beaked dolphins. They were swimming next to each other and did not seem very interested in us but allowing us to stay close by. We observed the dolphins doing some small jumps, regrouping then accelerating. We continued to see if we could find something in the last 15 min of the tour and we spotted a humpback whale, this humpback was near by another pod of 8-9 white beaked dolphins, and the big whale did a big peduncle throw and a few tail slaps! Impressive big splashes appeared in front of the boat. When we approached the whale was much calmer, swimming slowly, then suddenly turning back and coming at 5 meters from out boat! In the same area there was a second humpback whale that seemed to be feeding with another pod of white beaked dolphins and birds around. We went back home with full speed to not stay too long in the cold and had some fun in front of the harbour before getting back home. 

Crew: Captain Leo & Guide Miquel

Today we are running a full schedule of whale watching with tours at 1000, 1400, 1600 and 2000, and puffin watching at 0900, 1000 1300 & 1600. 

For more information come see us at Ægisgarður 5D, call us on +354 497 0000

or email us at info@whalesafari.is