Thursday, 29 February 2024

Today’s’ weather was mixed with minimal wind throughout but decreasing visibility and heavy snow. The temperature today was incredible cold and this meant thick sea ice in and around the harbor.

We saw a Humpback Whale in both tours, the first being just around the corner and into the harbor. This encounter this morning then developed into us slowly following the whale as it made its way north up the fjord. The whale was strictly traveling in its behaviour all morning, rarely fluking, and we left it just north of Svalbarseyri. Our afternoon tour was spent with the same whale, however, this time we did not encounter the whale until slightly further north; around the green buoy. The whale was behaving strangely, shallow diving and disappearing for large stretches in very shallow water. We later rediscovered the whale just south of Hjalteyri and here we had much more consistent sightings and regular fluking.

Surprisingly on our way home we stumbled upon another Humpback by Svalbardseyri, however, this was an unseen individual not seen on either tour.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departures: 0900 & 1300 Classic