Minkes, Dolphins and Porpoises!
24.Aug 2017
9:00
As we sailed out to Faxafloi today, we decided to take a little turn and sail in the direction of the Grotta lighthouse. That was because we had seen the blow of a whale, and we wanted to have a nice picturesque view of the whale with the lighthouse behind. In fact, there was a really nice juvenile minke whale that also surfaced quite a few time close to Andrea, giving everybody the chance to use all of theirs senses to experience this individual. We obviously saw it but also heard it and smelled it! It also once surfaced showing us its white nice belly! After a while it lost interest in us and we decided to sail forward, further into the bay. As we were going towards some dolphins we had seen further away with the binoculars, we encountered three nice harbour porpoises that swam parallel to us for a little while. We then reached a pod of 7 dolphins that were swimming very synchronized and closed together. On our way back we encountered another minke with which we stayed observing until it was time to go home.
Tour Status: On
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, White beaked dolphins, Harbour porpoises
10:00
This morning we found excellent conditions for our tour-no wind and a flat mirror sea. It was cloudy, but it made our visibility even better! Lilja sailed out of the Old Harbour of Reykjavik heading south west. Very sson, we had our first sighting. A small pod of harbour porpoises surprised us before we arrived to the feeding grounds. We could see this little cetaceans very well because of the good conditions, but they decided to leave us very soon. We continued our search and not far from the porpoises we spotted a pod of white beaked dolphins, great! two species in less than 35 minutes, the tour was just starting. We saw those dolphins for a few minutes. They were swimming calmly and having long dives, not caring too much about us.
Then we decided to leave them and keep on looking for something else, the bay was full of life!
Our next sighting was a minke whale spotted far in the distance. When we approached the animal, we could see how it was showing up its snout when reaching the surface. It was so calm that we were listening to the breath of the animal all the time. When it went for a deeper dive, we went to join another pod of white beaked dolphins. This pod was much bigger than the first one, and also more entertaining. They were very friendly with us, coming close to the bow many times and swimming underneath the Lilja. We also saw some young individuals. It was also very nice to see them jumping and slapping their flukes. After enjoying them for a long while, we decided to say goodbye to them.
Our next sighting were two Minke whales. They were in the same area and we could see both animals breathing almost at the same time not very far from each other, beautiful! We stopped our engines to give them a more natural and silent environment and we were rewarded having very beautiful views of both animals. Also, a third and fourth Minke Whales were spotted further in the distance.
On our way back to the harbour, we also spotted some litle puffins fliying from and to the island of Akurey and many Northern Fulmars gliding next to the surface.
A very busy tour, full of life and good sightings, we can not ask for more!
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, White beaked dolphins, Harbour porpoises
13:00
We had great conditions for spotting whales today: no wind, a calm bay and even though we obsiously like sunshine, it is easier to spot the animals without reflections on the water, so we were quite happy with the clouds above us as well. We started sailing Southwest, along the coast of Reykjanes, and we soon saw some disturbances in the flat water. They were made by harbour porpoises, the smallest species of toothed whales in Faxaflói. It is often quite hard to get a good look at these shy and fast animals, but today we were really lucky! There was several individuals around us, on both sides of the ship, so we could see them very well. They were lifting half their bodies out of the water when they surfaced, a behaviour called porpoising. The next sighting we had was a minke whale. We saw it come up several times, but it was swimming extremely fast and was impossible for us to follow. After this, we spotted to more minkes, one a bit closer to us and one a bit further away. We sailed towards the North now, to check this part of the bay as well, and here we found a big pod of white-beaked dolphins. There was actually several pods of this species in this area, dolphins in all directions! One of the pods was very friendly, and the animals came towards us to circle the ship and dive underneath us as well. After a while, we left this area to continue our search. We managed to find a few more minke whales, but the best sighting of this species was on our way back to the harbour. A minke whale came up right in front of Andrea, and the lucky passengers that stayed outside finally got a very close look at this species as well.
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, White beaked dolphins, Harbour porpoises
14:00
Tour: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, White beaked dolphins, Harbour porpoises
17:00
For this last tour we were happy to see that the sea hard remained calm and that there was still no wind. However, because the sky was cloudy it gave a sense of mist all around us. As we sailed out, we spotted a minke whale from far away. We decided to go closer to it and try to observe it. After a few attempts to get a closer look, we moved on as it kept surfacing only a couple times and then remaining under water for very long periods. We then encountered another minke. Also this one showed a similar behaviour however we still were able to observe it a few times. It also once came close enough for us to smell its tremendous fishy breath – hence the nickname stinky minke! It then went for a long deep dive, and whilst waiting for it to surface again we went forward to meet with a nice pod of 7 dolphins. We observed them as they were showing the typical behaviour of sleeping. Whales don’t really ever sleep but they are able to switch half of their brain off whilst the other does the simple functions of swimming and surfacing. In fact, all these individuals kept swimming in a reasonably straight direction, not minding our presence at all and most often surfacing in a synchronized way which does not often occur when they are awake.
Tour: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, White beaked dolphins, Harbour porpoises
