Authorized by the Icelandic Tourist Board
Iceland tourism's official quality label
SPECIAL TOURS SUPPORTS THE LOCAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
To see the photo’s from today’s tours click HERE!
Blog coming soon!
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback whale, minke whales and white-beaked dolphins.
The sun was shinning over Reykjavik today when we started to sail into Faxafloi bay. We entered into the feeding area after half an hour and we started to look for marine mammals. There are four main species here in the bay and we saw three of them today! At first we spotted a minke whale feeding in the area! They are plenty of them at this time of the year and we’ve seen during the whole tour at least 5 different minke whales. those cetaceans are pretty fast and seemed pretty busy feeding in the area. But at some point, one of them was just swimming at the surface just in front of us so we were able to enjoy and admire the whale. Then we continued because we wanted to find another species of whale. And on the way, a pod of white-beaked dolphins came to us! They came really close to the boat. Those dolphins are usually really curious and they love playing around the boat. But in the same time we saw the fluke or the tail from a whale which means it went for a deep dive so we waited for it and when it came back to the surface, we realized it was a humpback whale! It went a few times for some deep dives which allow us to see the fluke. And after some time the dolphins joined the party and started to play around the whale. This is a behavior that we see some times and the whales don’t appreciate it all the time. The whale started to go on its side, it was slapping its tail on the water and we even saw the huge white flippers, it was beautiful! We realized after that, that there were also a few minke whales in the area. We could into every directions and we could see a whale. The bay was really full of life today and it gave us again an amazing show!
-Alice
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback whale, minke whales and white-beaked dolphins.
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: TBD
This morning the sky was covered in clouds with a bit of mist here and there.We had 55 excited passengers on board who got cozy in our warm overalls.The conditions out at sea were alright with some small waves around which gave us decent visibility for spotting the whales around.We first headed straight into the bay and pretty soon we saw 2 white beaked dolphins which was quite odd as they usually travel in groups of 5-15 with their families. they swam underneath our boat where we had trouble finding them again but around this time we got word from another boat that a humpback whale had been spotted so we decided to check that out instead.On the way there we saw a minke whale which swam passed us, we followed it for a short period to see it come up a few times and then carried on towards the star of the show.We arrived and got to see it take a few large dives while exposing its beautiful fluke.Soon after the whale was joined by a group of white beaked dolphons, sometimes they don’t get along were the whale will aggressively slap its fluke onto the surface to tell the dolphins to back off from its fish but it seemed like they were actually getting along and even playing together.At one point did a minke whale join into the fun only to then leave again shortly after.The dolphins were quite fun as some swam very close to the ship were passengers could see them in the water but mostly they stuck to following the humpback whale,The dolphins eventually left so we started to make our way back as our time was running out when suddenly it started breaching! so naturally we turned around again and got to see it do a few jumps followed by a bit of slapping the sea with its pectoral fins which was both a sight to behold.We were already behind on time but we decided to enjoy it breaching for a couple of extra minutes before heading back, like we always say, we go the extra mile ;)On the way back we also saw the same two white beaked dolphins along with another minke whale.
-Patrick Jens
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback whale, minke whales and white-beaked dolphins.
This afternoon the sky was covered in clouds with a bit of mist here and there.
We had 52 excited passengers on board who got cozy in our warm overalls.The conditions out at sea were alright with some small waves around which gave us decent visibility for spotting the whales around.We headed out into the middle of the bay where we had seen a humpback whale on our previous tour and soon enough we managed to find it along with the same group of white beaked dolphins swimming around it feeding on the same fish as it.The humpback whale and the dolphins seemed to be getting along quite nicely and even looked as if they were playing together by swimming in interesting ways on their sides.The dolphins were also swimming close to our boat at times where passengers got to see them swimming underwater and jumping out of the water in big leaps!At times we even got to see the humpback whale breaching! and even slapping its pectoral fins onto the surface of the sea so there was quite a lot of interesting activity to see.We then saw them all heading towards a massive feeding frenzy of birds where there must have been a large school of fish around.We watched as they all dinned out on a large amount of fish when the humpback whale decided to depart away from the dolphins but instead of following it we wanted to see if we could find any minke whales around before we had to go back because we had seen a few in our previous tour but had yet to find some so far on this one.As it happens we actually found one only 2 minutes after beginning our search xD and after following it for a while we even found another one before returning to the harbor.
-Patrick Jens
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback whale, minke whales and white-beaked dolphins.
Tour Status: CANCELLED
Sightings: N/A
This Morning we left the Old Harbor with a beautiful sky ! Even though we felt a bit threatened about potentiel showers, we were surrounded by a very nice atmosphere.
We headed towards our feeding grounds too see if the animals observed yesterday were still around. After one hour we saw our first cetacean of the day, a minke whale ! Like most of the Minkes, this one was not really in a whale watching mood, pretty busy feeding and taking deep dives. After couple minutes we spotted another minke whale and even some white beaked dolphins ! We stayed around them a few time before heading towards another spot, where a humpack whale has been seen not so long ago by another boat. After less than 10 minutes, we saw the animal diving in the distance, and as we got closer the animal was back up again. Just before we left we had a very nice look at the beautiful fluke as the humpback went for another deep dive ! Beautiful Morning in Faxaflòi Bay !
-Florine
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback Whales, Minke Whales and White-Beaked Dolphins
It was a cold and cloudy morning so it took us some time to search the animals in the bay. Luckily after quite an intense search, we found a few minke whales in our feeding grounds and also some amazing white beaked dolphins ! Minkes were, like most of the time really busy taking deep dives to feed, but the dolphins were in a really great mood ! They stayed around for about 20 minutes, enjoying the waves our boat was creating as a free ride ! They came really close to us and we could really see how big these dolphins are : 3 meters long ! After a while we started to look for another species for our passengers. We were really surrounded by minke whales, but we wanted to see something bigger. After about 40 minutes, we finally spotted a humpback whale on the distance ! The animal was not in a really great mood for whale whatching, but we still got to see the fluke when it went for a deep dive ! A very nice good bye before heading back towards the Old Harbor.
-Florine
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback Whales, Minke Whales and White-Beaked Dolphins.
Our first species of the was a minke whale that we saw in some distance. The minke did not come up again but as we had just moved on a couple of hundred meters, another minke surfaced. This one was more cooperative and stayed in the same area a couple minutes. After making sure everyone had been able to see it, we moved on and came to an area where a humpback whale had been seen. The animal was still around and was feeding at depth but not alone ! With the animal was also a little pod of white beaked dolphins ! It seems that they were really having a good time all together, diving and surfacing at the same time, and playing a bit at the surface. We were Lucky to be able to see the humpback rolling on its side and showing us its belly a few times ! Even showing the flippers and the fluke as the animal was rolling ! It really was amazing too see the two species interacting together ! A couple of times they all surfaced very close to us. Even 6-7 meters from our RIB boat at some point ! We were able to see it lifts its fluke above the water a few times before we had to say Goodbye and head towards Reykjavik Old Harbor ! But wow, what a beautiful way to spend the day !
-Florine
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback Whales, Minke Whales and White-Beaked Dolphins.
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES! Humpback Whales, Minke Whales and White-Beaked Dolphins.
Authorized by the Icelandic Tourist Board
Iceland tourism's official quality label
SPECIAL TOURS SUPPORTS THE LOCAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL