Saturday, 18 May 2024

The conditions today were difficult for many reasons - we had strong northern win; patches of rain; and moderate crashing waves.

In the morning, we were lucky enough to find the 2 Humpback Whales Fjörulalli & Magnea. Magnea was sleeping to the East of Hjalteyri while the other was a couple of kilometers further North than this, feeding near to the surface. At one point, Fjörulalli performed a single tail throw, however, the reasons for this were unclear. Perhaps a component of feeding on food close to the surface to corral the fish into tighter shoals, or a typical agonistic response. In the afternoon, strangely, we were unable to find either of these 2 whales. But, we were able to find a different Humpback individual around Hjalteyri, this time much closer to the shore, MUCH closer. The behaviour of this individual was very strange; moving around great distances between each surfacing sequence and appearing at distances within a few meters from the beach. It really was incredible how close the whale was swimming to the beach and the crowd of people it attracted would mostly probably agree.

Text & Photos: Mac

Departures: Classic - 0900 & 1300 O’Clock.