Closest Encounter of the Humpback Type

18.Apr 2018

Photos from today’s tours can be found here.

WHALE WATCHING CLASSIC

9:00

After we boarded Lilja and sailed with the wind westwards, drifting through Kollafjord and into the feeding grounds. There we saw a lot of bird life, a good sign when searching for whales. We sailed through this large flock of birds, most of them northern fulmars and kittiwakes. Close to Akranes we saw blows from afar, these were humpbacks that were feeding in a large swarm of planckton, so dense that it made the surface red. We slowed down close to them, and they said hello before carrying on with their breakfast. They swam back and forth, cornering these crustaceans so they could feast on them. They came very close to us as they opened their mouth to feed, we could hear a loud blowing sound as they sprayed vapour from their lungs high up into the air. A beautiful sight, having them approach us so calmly was quite thrilling.

– Daníel Ágúst Agueda

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whales, minke whales

13:00

The weather had calmed down since this morning and the sun shone as we sailed into Faxa bay. We searched for bird activity that could point us to a location of feeding whales. Soon we found a flock and a high blow nearby. It was two minke whales that swam quickly back and forth as they hunted. We enjoyed their beautiful coloration as they glided in front of us. Captain Jón decided to head further out to explore more the vast bay, in search of more cetaceans. Traveling westwards we saw harbour porpoises swimming alongside us, in front of us there was a high blow. It was even larger that the one that we saw before, and as we sailed in that direction, we saw one humpback breach high into the air. It was two humpbacks, quite possibly the same ones we had seen in the morning. They were still feeding vigorously on the zooplankton that drifted on the surface. They were as calm as before about us approaching, one of them seemed more intrigued and swam around the boat, inspecting our Lilja. It was incredible to see them foraging so close to us, only a few meters from the vessel. All of us gasped with amazement when they opened their mouth and filtered the water through their baleen plates, fascinating!

– Daníel Ágúst Agueda

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, harbour porpoises, humpback whales

RIB EXPRESS

11:00

Our brand new RIB boat Dagmar had another amazing day again today! The sea conditions were a bit rough but our intrepid passengers were very well prepared for it. We sailed out to the feeding grounds and it took us a while to spot something. On our way out we got a glimpse of the harbour porpoises, but they disappear very quickly . We decided to continue sailing out and searching. And our search was very successful!! We found big flocks of birds in the distance and a couple of blow in the area. As we approached the birds, we could see that the animals around were humpback whales, fantastic! It took us some minutes to be sure if it was one or two animals, but we could tell them apart because the dorsal fins were very different. We stayed with one of them for a while and, oh! what a show. We got some very close looks as the animal was lounge feeding in front of us. This whale didn’t care about our presence and kept swimming around and taking breaths all around us. The northern gannets were also very active and we saw them doing plunge diving all the time. Without any doubt, there was a lot of food there for everybody. The humpback whale showed us its massive pectoral fins as it was sliding on its side and we also could see a very distinctive fluke. Definitely a great encounter!! When time ran out, we sailed back to the harbour with big smiles on our faces.

– Sara Rodríguez Ramallo

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES, humpback whales

14:00

We got on board Dagmar and headed out of Reykjavik Old Harbour for a whale watching themed cruise in Faxafloi bay. We sailed westward to the feeding grounds, hoping to find some of a Humpback Whale which had been spotted earlier in the morning. The boat glided through the seas at 35 knots and soon we reached an area where many birds were foraging. We saw Northern Fulmars and Northern Gannets. Our captain noticed a blow a bit further offshore. A few seconds later we saw a Minke Whale surfacing before swiftly diving again. We then as we sailed on we passed by a pod of Harbour Porpoises. Eventually we saw a blow in the distance and approached a large beast. We found ourselves sharing the waters with a Humpback Whale. This animal was lunge-feeding, coming up to the surface repeatedly with an open mouth, allowing us to gaze in wonder at the baleen plates. It seemed that the whale felt comfortable with our boat, since it simply kept swimming around us, sometimes surfacing less than 2 meters away! This was truly an incredible encounter with the whale, we could almost pet it! Passengers and crew were laughing hysterically, filled with joy. After a while we finally said goodbye to the cetacean and made our way back to Reykjavik, all the while reminiscing about the amazing sight of that mighty beast.

– Etienne Menétrey

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whales, minke whales, harbour porpoises