The weather today was in line with previous days. A glass-like sea greeted us in the morning and this slowly turned into some light surface waves in the early afternoon.

In total, we saw 2 Minke Whales and 1 Humpback Whale. The first Minke was swimming around Strytan, however, this whale proved very challenging to spot as it was only taking singular breaths and travelling great distances between them. The second Minke was a little further North, East of Hjalteyri, and this individual exhibited much more consistent surfacing behaviours—groups of roughly 4 breaths followed by a dive and roughly 4 minutes below the surface. The Humpback Whale was just West of this and this individual, Magnea, spent a great deal of the time at the surface in each encounter with less than 3 minute dives. This behaviour was later observed again in the afternoon as the whale continued to show a similar pattern. Two particular moments of note were a tail throw while we were engine off observing the whale and, something I have never seen before, a breaking of the surface to breath mid sequence, but, keeping the blowholes closed and not actually taking a breath. The whale also appeared to stretch out slightly while it did this showing a subtle difference in movement and left us wondering why this may have been.

Text & Photos: Mac

Departures: Classic - 0900. Express - 1000 & 1400 O’Clock.