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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

Tuesday, 13 November 2018

What a beautiful day to be out on the fjord, even though the morning was very rainy it cleared up spectacularly for our tour. We enjoyed some spots of blue sky, a fantastic float fjord and hardly any wind! Throughout the tour we spotted many tiny harbour porpoises which were wonderfully entertaining. The stars of the show had to show up of course and they did in fine form. First a singular humpback wowed us with its beautiful fluking and then after travelling a bit further out we found many, many more! Was just exceptional seeing so many humpies surfacing all around us. Another amazing day in the fjord!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Monday, 12 November 2018

A very rainy but a very whale filled day! The fjord was lovely and flat and on the way out some lovely harbour porpoises popped up to entertain us. It wasn´t long until we stumbled upon the delightful whale soup. Where numerous whales were popping up all around us (one just 2 meters from the boat!). Two groups of two were also travelling and feeding together and burst out of the waters surface as they rose to take a breath of air after their long dive. Just fantastic!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Sunday, 11 November 2018

We were very happy to be out on the fjord again today. It was a little rainy, but thankfully not too cold, our overalls were put to good use keeping everyone dry. Many humpback whales popped up to greet us around Hauganes. We watched in awe are they surfaced all around us, just magical. A group of three and another group of two were also travelling together, which is just super cool to see. We saw so many flukes, and backs and surfacing´s of so many whales it was just incredible. Super glad to be back on the fjord today!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Friday, 9 November 2018

Oh Eyjafjörður, just when we thought you couldn´t get any better you do, every time. The weather was just perfect, not too cold, very little wind and a beautifully flat fjord. Harbour porpoises were the first cetaceans spotted as we headed out. Later on we got to see a beautiful humpback whale, which breached too! After viewing this animal for a while we headed out and found another, and another and then a huge bunch of them! There were at least 20 humpback whales surfacing all around us! Many close and even more a bit further away! Aretha Frankfin, Moonshine and Tough Pella just to name a few were out enjoying themselves with their friends. Eyjafjörður never ceases to amaze us!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Thursday, 8 November 2018

What a day to be out on the fjord! We had a few unexpected problems with our engines, so we had to switch to our larger boat Holmasol. Regardless, the weather was good and the light was just fantastic for photography. The whales were also out to entertain and delighted us with many beautiful surfacing´s. They were popping up all around our boat! Three whales were also surfacing and travelling together which was super awesome to watch! When time was unfortunately running out, and we needed to start heading back, even more whales popped up preventing us from leaving! So we just had to stay a few minutes more and enjoy these exceptional humpback whales.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Wednesday, 7 November 2018

Another spectacular day on the fjord. It was raining for the majority of the tour but this did not dampen our spirits and it did clear up at the end. Jackson the humpback whale greeted us with some fantastic surfacing, showing us it´s huge fluke as it went for a dive super close to us. We hung out with Jackson for a while then headed further out and found us some harbour porpoises and some more lovely humpbacks, and a fair few of them too! There were two whales to our 12 o´clock, one at our one o´clock another at our ten AND another four whales behind us in the distance. We couldn´t get enough of these fantastic beasts as they surfaced all around us!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Tuesday, 6 November 2018

What a lovely day to be out on the fjord! There was very little wind and the fjord was quite flat, making it an easy sail. Harbour porpoises were out to entertain us today with their tiny little bodies popping up every so often. Two humpback whales also came to check us out and we were able to get very good looks at these animals, as they surfaced very closely. One even gave us quite a shock when it surfaced only a few meters away!

Pictures and Text by Tess Hudson

Monday, 5 November 2018

Another beautiful day on the fjord today, the sun was shinning (shocking i know), there was very little wind and the landscape was dusted with a fresh layer of snow. Two humpbacks were spotted on our tour today which surfaced just beautifully, firstly at a distance and separately and then, later on they joined forces and began surfacing together raising their wonderful flukes, one after another. One of the humpbacks today had a very strange cut to its upper back just in front of its dorsal fin and we are very curious what this may have been caused by. Therefore, we have sent the pictures off for further analysis. Although the cut looked fresh it didn´t seem to be causing the whale much if any discomfort, as far as we could tell.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Sunday, 4 November 2018

Great to be back out on the fjord today! It was still snowing which was amazingly pretty and surprisingly not too cold. The fjord was fairly calm and we enjoyed the snow covered mountains as we sailed by. We saw many little harbour porpoises which popped up wonderfully close by on the way out. Two humpback whales surfaced in front us and entertained us for the rest of the tour, showing us their magnificent flukes as they went for dives. One whale even tail lobbed a few times, which was super fantastic! Incredible behaviour to witness. It´s always great to be back on the water!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Friday, 2 November 2018

Whats on the menu today? More whale soup and LOTS of it! It was a beautiful day out on the fjord. The sky was clear, the swell not too high and there was little wind which made sailing pleasant but was perhaps a little cold. But that was of little bother as we got to witness one of the most amazing tours! Whales, whales everywhere! Humpbacks surfaced all over creating magical rainblows when they came up for a breath and their blow struck the sunlight. Jackson, Tough pella and Spike were out to enjoy the fun surrounded by plenty of buddies.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Thursday, 1 November 2018

A winter wonderland out in the fjord today. There was a beautiful blizzard across the water and mountains capped with a blanket of snow. We found a lovely minke who surfaced nicely, before we headed out to find more whales. “Whale Soup” is what our wonderful Captain Arnar called it when we came across not only one humpback whale but approximately 30 if not more! They were everywhere! Surfacing near and far, solo and in groups. Truly Epic! Worlds cannot describe how amazing this encounter was. None of us can wait to get back out there!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Wednesday, 31 October 2018

It seems like the whales just can´t stay away! Again we experienced the magic that is Eyjafjörður. Jackson, Tough pella, Dártagnan, Giljagaur were out to entertain and came wonderfully close, shocking us at one point, as they popped up very close to us. Many other humpback whales (20+) were also swimming about and feeding close by. A minke whale also popped up at one point, showing us its extremely streamlined body. Another wonderful whale fulled day!

Pictures by Babsi Neubarth and text by Tess Hudson

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

Woooooow! What an exceptional day! Today we were to witness a wonderful whale party! On our way out we saw a minke whale and a many harbour porpoises. By the island of Hrisey we found not only a few humpback whales but a huge gathering! There were at least 30 whales surfacing all around us. A group of 5 also popped us right next to us and showed us how big they really are. We could simply stop for an hour and let the whales come towards us. Our familiar friends were out to greet us including Jackson, Aretha Frankfin and Tough pella. A truly amazing whale filled day!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Monday, 29 October 2018

Blue skies, snow covered mountains and only a bit of wind provided the perfect back drop for our whale watching tours today. We only had to sail past Hjalteryi to find four different humpback whales all feeding individually. Our fish finder should loads of food around them and the humpback seemed to enjoy the ‘buffet’ tremendously. On the way back to Akureyri we even saw a Sei whale and a minke whale! Sei whales are not so common in the fjord, but we have seen them on and off over the year. Great whales, great weather and a great day!

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Saturday, 27 October 2018

In all honesty, it was really cold out at sea today and even our overalls could only warm us to a certain extent. But the whales were fabulous. We saw up to 20 different humpback whales swimming and feeding in different constellations. Among them were quite a few new individuals which we have not seen before. So, if you have any great ideas on how to name a humpback whale, sent us an email to info@whalewatchingakureyri.is! We are looking forward towards your input and of course are eager to go out and watch whales again. It looks very windy for tomorrow, but the new week should start off really calm.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Thursday, 25 October 2018

The wind had picked up quite a bit and colder temperatures were coming with it from the North. We made good use of our overalls while looking for cetaceans in the fjord. Again the Eyjafjord humpbacks did not disappoint. On all our tours we saw at least 2 different humpback whales. One was spotted even South of Hjalteyri, that is the closest we had a whale to Akureyri in weeks. tomorrow we will cancel all our tour due to the strong winds that are predicted.

Text by Babsi and pictures by Tess