Our weather conditions today were near perfect with glass-like seas and no wind. We did, however, have fairly low visibility with low hanging cloud.

Our first sighting was the Humpback Whale we have names ‘Camel'. It was feeding in the area just around from the harbour in front of the industrial area. The whale was seen moving frequently around this area and up towards Svalbarðseyri showing prime evidence of feeding activity. We saw several surface straining behaviours and even a singular lunge feed where the whale surfaced with its mouth still agape.

We traveled slightly further out in search of our second whale, and we found it located in the shallows around the green buoy. Here was our second Humpback Whale, Magnea. This whale was seen traveling quickly, again seemingly chasing food, on the edge of the shallow water just a few meters deep. Because the water was so shallow, we did not see any fluking behaviours, but, we were able to track the whales movements via the footprints it was leaving on the surface from swimming so shallow. We also had some prime evidence of feeding here in the form of surface straining. As we decided the leave we observed a very strange behaviour, the whale lunged out of the water to feed and then followed this with a series of head stands sitting motionless with the fluke out of the water. The whale then moved the fluke back and forward several times before going up and down in the water. This continued for several minutes.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic