Friday, 5. July 2024
Góðan daginn!
What is going on in the fjord?!
We are experiencing a sudden change of weather in the past couple of days. We had some summer vibes just a few days ago. The weather happened to heavily affect the behavior we are seeing lately. The warm temperatures caused a lot of snow to melt and massive amounts of nutrients and sediment ran down the rivers into the fjord.
First there was a wall of mud which the whales seemingly avoided so they were sticking a little further north and as the temperatures dropped, just yesterday, some of the curious whales ventured back all the way to the harbour of Akureyri. Starting of with this, we are now experiencing something that is easily described in one word - MADNESS!
The misty fjord in the early morning did not look promising at all. We were travelling against the waves and it was dizzling all the time. One could not see too far and spotting whales, was rather a difficult task, but what followed was quite a surprise to everyone. It started with 2 Minke Whales one after another between Svalbarðseyri and Green Buoy, we gave it a quick peek and sailed further. Then BOOM a large splash in the distance!
2 Humpback Whales right next to each other both tail throwing, tail slapping and guess what - BREACHING, yes that is what we have all been waiting for, jumping giants weighing up to 40 tons lunging themselves out of the water doing some funky acrobatics, just wow! There is just nothing that beats seeing such a sight. And it kept on happening for 20 minutes! We all enjoyed the show and when it was over we peacefully left the area and got to see 2 more Minke Whales around Hjalteyri and 2 more Humpback Whales North of Hjalteyri.
Afternoon kept us really hyped up after this insanity and the spotting conditions were getting quite challenging. We did get to spot two more Minke Whales on the way to Hjalteyri and also some Harbour Porpoises, followed by 3 Humpbacks travelling between the Green Buoy and North of Hjalteyri.
We went by slowly hoping to find some of those jumping marvels. Here it goes again a huge splash in the far and one of our express RIB boats went to check it out - just to see so many breaches, that whoever was on board had to cry out of happiness.
Those lucky moments unfortunately had to be paid for and although this happens really rarely we had one of our boats out there seeing not as much action as the other ones. We are trying to observe wild animals in their natural habitat and of course sometimes it can happen that we will not get to see what we wish for. On that tour there were some sightings, but we offered our passengers a free tour with us.
Other than that the whales seemed to enjoy this quality Nordic “summer” so far. Let´s see what is to come later today!
Text & Photos: David, Mac, Lenka
Departures: Classic - 0900, 1000, 1300 & 1700. Express - 1000, 1400 & 2100