Tuesday, 27 June 2023

Góðan daginn whale lovers!

To day we sailed out of our lovely Akureyri on a sunny and super calm mirrorlike sea. Even though we had to travel a bit far for the bigger animals. Just next to Svalbarðseyr we had our first sighting with a couple of sneaky Harbour Porpoises. On our way to up North, we saw some more porpoises, but just next to Hísey (SE), we found the good stuff. A huge Humpback Whale was surface feeding right next to the rib. The humpy surfaced about 3 meters from us, rolling slightly over and staring everyone in the eye and she submerged again. It was an incredible moment that we shared with that whale. She also surface numerous other times showing various parts of the anatomy including the baleen plates. On our afternoon trip we were also treated with more humpys in a similar place as well as one particularly massive one, the largest I have seen. This whale was not alone however, joined by a pod of White Beaked Dolphins that she was swatting away like flies as they jumped over her back. The dolphins also came in extra handy as a way to keep track at the surface where the humpy was as it dived deeper. And on our way back just South of Hísey we found a sneaky Minke Whale just surfacing next to us.

Departures of the day: Classic tour 0900, 1300 & 1400 o’clock. Express tour 1000 & 1400 o’clock.

Text & Images: Gisela & Mac