Species seen today: Humpback Whales, minke whale, harbour porpoise

Birds seen today: Great cormorant, purple sandpiper, arctic terns, 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 - The day started with incredible sightings - humpback whales were everywhere we looked! The water was beautifully flat and had a light grey colour, making it easy to see the backs and flukes of humpback whales all around. In the distance we even saw the splashes of a breaching whale, and towards the end of the tour another individual was throwing its peduncle in the air. In the meantime, a minke whale also surfaced out of nowhere and we sometimes caught quick glimpses of harbour porpoises while we were waiting for the humpback whales to show up around us. An incredible tour with such an abundance and diversity of marine life. 

Crew: Þruma II Captain Reynar & Guide Eline

12:00 - Apart from the rain, the weather was incredible for whale watching today : barely any wind or swell in the horizon. For this tour we headed off toward an area we heard our colleagues had seen a lot of humpback whales in the previous tour ... and we definetely did not get disappointed by our sightings. While sailing through this area the first whale made us know of its presence by breaching out of the water about 500 meters from us, it is always such an incredible sight to see those giants leaping out of the water. We then went toward another blow of a second individual humpback whale, stopping in its vincinity we got greeted by a pod of about 5 to 10 harbour porpoises calmly surfacing all around our boat, this species close to us is quite a rare sight to have. And while we were observing these tiny cetaceans the humpback whale got extremely inquisitive and decided to circle our boat ! It was incredible to see this animal clearly checking us out, circling us a few times and even spyhopping right by us twice ! After a few tours of our rib it clearly was not interested anymore and decided to slowly get away from us. We from there went to see for a few minutes a third individual before it was time to head back to the harbour. Such an incredible tour with the display of unique social behaviors that always remind us how intelligent these gentle giants are.

Crew: Þruma IV Captain Megan & Guide Melanie

14:00 - This afternoon we started with some cloud skies and some rain but with good hopes since the previous tour they saw a lot of humpback whales. The first stop was at Akurey to see some atlantic puffins and then our search for some cetacean life started. Didn't took too long until we find the first individual. Was not only one but 3 different humpback whales surfacing just a few meters from the boat. In the distance another individual did some tail slapping so we went to check it out. This whale did it for multiple times and everyone got a really nice view of it. After spending some quality time with this majestic animals we unfortunately had to start to head back to the harbour. On the way back to the harbour 3 White Beaked Dolphins appeared in the front of the boat, another common species that we find in the bay and everyone got a good view of them.

Crew: Þruma IV Captain Megan & Guide Rodrigo

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

For more information please call us on +354 497 0000

email us at info@whalesafari.is or come see us at Ægisgarður 5D!