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NATURE BLOG ARCHIVE

Elding Whale Watching Akureyri has been keeping track of whale sightings in Eyjafjörður since the beginning of May 2016. Read the nature blog to follow up on past sightings.

NATURE BLOG ARCHIVE

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

We had such a nice boat ride at our one o'clock tour today. The weather was nice and the sea was flat, we did not have to sail far to see some cetaceans, after about 30 minute we saw couple of Harbor Porpoises swimming in the fjord, and few minutes later we saw three Humpback whales close together.  Depill, Jubilee and another individual that we still have to identify, and with them we had a quality time. One humpback whale was in the distance.  They entertained us for about an hour before we had to get back to Akureyri.  Another great day in Eyjarfjörður!

Text by Anna Gunnarsdóttir and pictures by Babsi Neubarth.

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

We had a lovely but cold boat ride at our one o'clock tour today. We had to sail quite far to see the whales but once we were near Hrísey we saw four Humpback whales. Athos and Fireworks where quite close together and Alli was nearby making his funny signature flute sound as he came up to the surface. Our absolute highlight of the tour was the reunion with Fireworks, he was last encountered in september last year. Again a successful day in Eyjafjördur.

Text by Anna Gunnarsdóttir and pictures by Babsi Neubarth.

Monday, 27 November 2017

A freezing wind did blow in the fjord today, but our comfortable overalls helped us battle the chill. We went out on a tour at 12 o'clock on our boat Hólmasól to search for cataceans. We had a smooth ride but it took us a while to get to the whales but once we did we found alot of them about 10 in totall and we had a nice time with them. Athos, Arnar, Tough Pella, Max, Cosmo, Jackson, Blowromir, Manu and D'Artagan keept us company as we came to visit them. In the distance we saw many blows but unfortunatly we had to get back as the time was running out. Even though we had a cold day everybody on board was happy with seeing the whales in their natural habitats. 

Text by Anna Gunnarsdóttir and pictures by Babsi Neubarth 

Sunday, 26 November 2017

The calm after the storm turned out to be gorgeous, sunny and bitter cold. Sailing conditions were excellent and despite the cold most of our passengers stayed outside to enjoy the fantastic scenery. It took us quite some time to find the first humpback whale, but then we were delighted to encounter Fridolin, a humpack we had seen earlier this year. Since it was coming up regularly, we stayed with it for a most of our tour and had a very nice time following it with our eyes under the sea surface. On the way back we all of a sudden stumbled upon Jackson and one companion which were likely resting. A freezing fun day out in the fjord. Tomorrow we will already go out at noon!

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Thursday, 23 November 2017

The storm is still keeping the whole of Iceland on their toes as well as the area around Eyjafjördur. Nevertheless we had very eager Vikings and so we decided to give it a try and go out. Snow was falling constantly and the visibility was rather limited, however this did not stop us to find our first humpback whale after about an hour of sailing. We got a few nice looks, but since the whale did dive for many minutes we decided to go further out and made it all the way to Hjalteryi before we had to turn around. On one occasion we had spotted another humpback whale but could not find it again. Many passengers stayed outside for almost the whole tour and were rewarded when all of a sudden the humpback whale Harley Dafinson popped up in front of us not far from the harbor. We were of course super happy to see it and everybody could enjoy good looks of its fin and fluke. A very nice ending to a bit bumpy tour.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Sunday, 19 November 2017

We went out on one special tour at 9 o’clock today in the morning and had a lovely sunrise tour with freshly fallen snow. Like a soft blanket the snow had covered the surroundings of Eyjafjördur. Our ticket office and Holmasol. It truly created a special atmosphere that seemed to have translated onto the whales. One minke whale and approx. 10 humpback whales were seen close by and from the distance. At the beginning the whales were diving for long times so it was a bit difficult at first to get up close and personal, but at the end patience paid off and we got really close and nice looks of these gorgeous cetaceans. Manu, Jackson, Tough Pella, Miso and possibly Bad ‘Awesome’ Fluker could be seen close enough so that we could identify them. All of that in front of a fantastic scenery highlighted by pink sunrise accents.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

 

Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Today we were very happy to welcome these incomparable mirror like seas back in the fjord. It meant almost no wind and a very smooth ride on our boat Holmasol. Food must be still around a plenty because we had a three species tour! Starting off with a minke whale we then found seven humpback whales, another minke and finished with a large pod of harbour porpoises. Many well-known flukes were raised high above the sea surface. Miso, Harley, Humpy McHumpface, Tough Pella, Jackson and one individual which was quite lazy today, not showing the fluke. Our absolute highlight was our mini reunion with Jackson. We had not seen Jackson for a while, so we were extremely pleased to see it again and so it seemed at least the humpback whale, too. All of a sudden it turned around and approached us to take a stroll around the front of our boat. This is when whale watching becomes really special, when it is not only you who is watching the whale, but also the whale seems to be watching you.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

 

Tuesday, 14 November 2017

A freezing wind did blow in the fjord today, but the sun and our cozy overalls helped us battelingl the chill and so we went out on a tour in search of cetaceans. Soon our search proofed to be fruitful in roughly the same area where we had seen the whales yesterday. A total of four humpback whales were busy feeding individually a bit scattered in an area of a few kilometers. Of course Pepper, Miso and Tough Pella could be observed next to one of the black flukes we encountered the day before. Even though it was very cold, everybody on board was happy to go out and watch these magnificent giants of the sea in their natural habitat.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 13 November 2017

After a windy night we sailed out with still some winds blowing from the South West. Still the fjord provided us with enough shelter to go out on one whale watching tour under a cloudy, but dry sky. This tour really felt like the tour of dark flukes since we encountered five humpback whales with mainly dark colorations on their underside of the fluke. They surfaced many times and were very active feeding. Of course Pepper, Miso and Tough Pella were part of the whale party we got to enjoy today. Again a successful day in Eyjafjördur.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Saturday, 11 November 2017

We had a great day at sea today and so much activity in the nature today. Soon in our tour we started encountering humpbacks. 
There were at least 9 individuals that we encountered today, several of those we consider our friends and we could identify.  The ones we could identify were Dexy, Tough Pella, Harley Dafinson, Miso, Lopapeysa and Athos. There were at least two whales that we have not named yet. 
There was such a great activity with those whales that you could turn in almost every direction and spot a humpback, some of them very close and others in the distance.

After having had a blast with the humpbacks we got word of White beaked dolphins a little bit further out in the fjord and took to that direction. 
We had a fantastic encounter with the dolphins, they were very playful and came very close to the boat as you can see in the pictures.
This was actually our first encounter with the dolphins in Eyjafjörður since May 2017.

Text by Halla Lúthersdóttir, photos by Babsi Neubarth.