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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

Monday, 15 April 2019

Incredible conditions were expecting us throughout the day. It was warm, sunny and calm out in the fjord, almost as if the weather was celebrating the beginning of the RIB boat season. We went on three tours and could find the same humpback whale on every tour. The individual was diving and showing its fluke perfectly. The highlight of the day though, was the arrival of our first minke whale of 2019! This particular individual seemed to be quite curious about us, came really close to our boat and delighted everyone onboard the afternoon tour. We even saw a glimpse of a single white-beaked dolphin. Great day here in the fjord!

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Sunday, 14 April 2019

Today we went on one tour in the afternoon and could enjoy the presence of the same humpback whale we have been seeing for 3 days now. The conditions were a bit windier than during the last couple of days so that we had to battle a few swells. It stayed dry throughout the tour apart from a few splashes. We saw the humpback whale close and a bit further surfacing multiple times. The individual showed its fluke all around us. Hence, nice pictures were guaranteed. Mr. or Mrs. Humpback we would like you to stay for many more days to come!

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Saturday, 13 April 2019

Hello Saturday, hello sunshine, hello humpback whale! We went on one afternoon tour today in stunning conditions with a breeze blowing from Southeast. It took us about 45 minutes to spot the blow of a humpback whale. When we saw its fluke, we realized it was the same individual we had seen yesterday. It even behaved comparably, coming up regularly and gracefully showing us the fluke. A gorgeous day with a gorgeous humpback whale.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Friday, 12 April 2019

HUMPBACK’S are back baby! It’s been just over a month since we last saw our favorite whale species our blessed humpbacks, and as you can image we were delighted to have them back in the fjord today. This beautiful individual captivated us with some lovely surfacing sequences and some spectacular dives. The humpbacks can hold their breath for 55 minutes but this individual was only going for 3 minute dives allowing us to great a great look at this individual. Delighted to have the happy humpbacks back in Eyjafjörður.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Thursday, 11 April 2019

White-beaked dolphins continued to honor us with their presence today on two tours. In the morning we saw a small pod of 5-7 individuals likely feeding, whereas in the afternoon we could enjoy at least 70+ dolphins. We believe it must have been multiple pods which joined momentarily together for some unknown reason. How lucky that we found them just in that moment. Seas were calm as could be so that we turned off the engines and just listened to the sound of the dolphins breathing. Absolutely delightful to be part of such an experiences! And soon we hope that the larger cetaceans will be back in our area, too.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

Dolphinately a delightful day! The sun was shining gloriously, the fjord was super flat and there was no wind making sailing a wonderful experience. It didn’t take hardly any time to find our first cetaceans today, which were the fantastic white-beaked dolphins. They were jumping, leaping and bow ridding throughout. A few times they even came right up to the bow and we could see them swimming under the waters surface next to the boat! What an unforgettable experience! Three of them even jumped all in a row! The closest dolphins, consisting of about 10 individuals were just incredible to watch, (there were more dolphins further away) and even consisted of mother and calf pairs. The cute harbour porpoises were also spotted on both tours today popping up out of the flat fjord. Can’t wait until be are back out in Eyjafjörður tomorrow.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Tuesday, 9 April 2019

Sunshine galore makes every trip super enjoyable at the moment and so do the cetacean which visit Eyjafjordur. We sailed very far North today in hope of finding some of the very exciting species we had seen last week. After about 90 minutes of sailing we were rewarded by a huge blow to our right. It turned out to be the blue whale. What a majestic animal that was not too easy to observe at the beginning. However, our patience paid off so that we even saw it rolling onto one side and showing us its flipper. Absolutely extraordinary to see a blue whale doing that! To top it all, we encountered a pod of 6-9 white-beaked dolphins on our way back to the harbour. A fabulous day out with two species we do not see often in the fjord.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 8 April 2019

A spectacular day out on the fjord today, the conditions were just perfect! The sun was shining, the fjord super flat and there was no wind, which is always a pleasant surprise. We sailed from Dalvik today and not only saw our first Northern Gannet of the season but found a wonderful pod of beautiful white-beaked dolphins. This pod was quite spread out and there was even a mother and calf pair among them. They delighted us with some beautiful surfacing sequences and even bow-rode for a bit. They were right at the front of the boat allowing us to see their beautiful bodies popping up under the waters surface just meters away from us. Some dolphins then even started leaping right out of the water a wonderful site to see!

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Sunday, 7 April 2019

After the incredible week we have had with orcas, sperm and blue whale, we could not wait to get out on the water this morning. The weather looked super promising, too. Blue sky, sunshine, no clouds and almost no wind accompanied us all around the entrance of the fjord. We search for over three hours very far North. But unfortunately no blows, splashes of fins were seen. Hence, we gave out complimentary tickets to all our passengers to come again and search together with us for marine mammals.

Text by Babsi Neubarth

Saturday, 6 April 2019

BLUE WHALE in the fjord!! The worlds largest animal that has ever lived decided to delight us with its presence today on both our tours. This gigantic beast of approximately 18 meters (maybe more) was found right at the end of Eyjafjörður, but as our tour left from Dalvík it was a rather short sail. This individual surfaced many times allowing us a wonderful look at its blue/grey molted body, small dorsal fin and finally its humongous fluke! Which it raised right out of the water for us. What an incredible week we are having! Join us tomorrow to see what delights we can find.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Friday, 5 April 2019

SPERM WHALES in Eyjafjördur. April is just full of surprises here at the entrance of the fjord. We sailed out from Dalvik and soon it became apparent that we would have to go far North today. Luckily the seas were calm so that we could leave the shelter of the fjord and go past the area of Olafsfjördur. And that is where we saw it, multiple blows in the distance. They looked different from the humpback whale blows and when we got closer, we could confirm these were sperm whales. We counted at least 5 individuals who stayed on the surface for 7-8 minutes at a time, before raising their flukes up high and going down for their long dives. How fascinating to see this special type of whale. Interestingly we encountered sperm whales for the first time last year at roughly the same place at the beginning of April. Hopefully these majestic toothed whales will stay around for a while.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Thursday, 4 April 2019

What an Incredible day to be out at sea. The conditions were perfect, the best i’ve seen in quite some time. The fjord was mirror flat, there was no wind and the hot sun warmed our faces as we sailed. It didn’t take hardly any time to find cetaceans today as we set sail from Dalvik. Only 20 minutes from harbour and we were viewing probably the most striking cetacean, the Orca or Killer Whale as they are sometimes known. This pod of at least 6 individuals was quite spread out, each focused on filling its belly with fish. We viewed one male very close up as it swam towards us and actually checked us out, swimming on its side and then circulating the boat. A female pod member even raised it’s tail for us, a rather rare happening with Orcas. It was such a spectacular tour. None of us can wait to be back on the water again.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Wednesday, 3 April 2019

Winds had calmed down compared to yesterday and we were accompanied by sun, clouds and a bit of wind on our afternoon tour. We sailed from Akureyri and ended our tour in Dalvik. Since the past tours were full of surprises, we were eager to go out and search the whole 60 kilometers of the fjord. Today a pod of white-beaked dolphins showed their lovely fins just outside of Hrisey. We counted between 7-10 individuals. They were quite busy, likely herding fish and we were kept on our toes to follow all their movements. Very fun and handy because it got chilly outside. Afterwards we went further North, however no other cetaceans were spotted. Still, a fun afternoon out in the fjord!

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 1 April 2019

April Fools and Orcas are still fooling around the Fjord! This morning we had perfect conditions, clear sky, flat sea and full sun. We sailed out from Akureyri and again headed out all the way to Olafsfjordur, to find a family of Orcas. It was a different group from the one we’ve seen yesterday. Four individuals were active but keep staying together. We stayed with them longer than we usually do and the tour was ended in Dalvik instead of Akureyri. Thanks to that we were already much closer to the destinated area in the afternoon and next tour was simply stunning. We found the same orcas family that we’ve seen yesterday and we were able to see two more families further in the distance. Today we officially extended our spring schedule and from now on we’ll be going out on the tours at 9:00 and 13:00 giving us more chances to observe wildlife of Eyjafjordur!

Pictures and Text by: Ania Wojcik

Sunday, 31 March 2019

The Killer Whales are back! Today’s tour was definitely one of the best ones we had this year. Again we had to go quite far out, this time we went all the way beyond Olafsfjordur but it was absolutely worth it. We found a family of Orcas travelling together. Killer whales are known to travel in family groups and this time we were able to notice two younger individuals among the group. Three whales were inseparable and almost synchronized in movements most of the time and two more were moving around them. At some point it seemed that they became curious about us and we had an incredible encounter when they approached the boat from the side and we could observe them just meters away. In total we've seen 5 orcas today. Amazing experience!

Pictures and Text by: Ania Wojcik

Saturday, 30 March 2019

Today we had incredible tour with White beaked dolphins! We sailed all the way to Olafsfjordur where we found this amazing group of dolphins. At first we saw them speeding and it looked a bit like they were running away from something but we didn’t spot any potential predators in the area, also we were the only boat there. At some point they slowed down and seemed to stay in a certain area - then we spotted the buoys of fishing nets so it might be that they weren’t actually running away but speeding in reaction to “cry for help”. Of course we can’t know that for sure, we could only be sure if we’d go underwater but fishing nets are one of the biggest dangers to cetaceans and if there would be an entangled individual deep in the water, we couldn’t help him. This is why it is so important to rise awareness of this problem and hopefully with time - create better rules for fishing industries. We stayed there for a longer while at some point being surrounded by dolphins. Few of them approached us following the boat on the side just a meter away. We could also notice many playful, younger individuals among them and this is always a precious sighting to watch.

Pictures and Text: Ania Wojcik

Friday, 29 March 2019

Beautiful sailing conditions, very little wind, combined with the warm sun and a very flat fjord made sailing a delight. On the tour we encounter a huge diversity of bird life including: northern fulmar, kittiwake, eider duck, long tailed duck and black guillemot. The stars of the tour were most definitely the beautiful harbour porpoises. Usually an elusive species, these animals only pop up once or twice before they disappear, but not today! Today they surfaced all the way around the boat coming up many times. They were porpoising out of the water at points, a beautiful sight to see. No larger cetaceans were seen and complimentary tickets were given out but regardless, the passengers enjoyed the wonderful little “Pig” whales as they are known in many languages.

Pictures and text by Tess Hudson

Thursday, 28 March 2019

Snow storms blazed the fjord today but that did not stop us from sailing! As we made our way down the fjord the snow storms gave way,1 and the beautiful sun shone through the clouds. Due to the recent storms the sea conditions were a bit more bumpy than usual but nothing uncomfortable. We saw a large variety of bird life on the tour today including: eider duck, long tailed duck, black guillemot, icelandic gull and kittiwake. Some beautiful harbour porpoises also popped up out of the surf to show us their amazingly streamline bodies, which were just brilliant to watch. No larger cetaceans were seen so complimentary tickets were issued to passengers. But we never know what tomorrow will bring.

Picture by Anna, text by Tess Hudson