Over night it had been snowing all around Akureyri so that we had to shuffle snow before we were able to go on a whale watching adventure. Swells and wind made sailing indeed adventurous. But the beautiful whales and the stunning winter scenery made up for that. We all had a great time, however on our RIB boat tour we got taken back to reality very quickly. First we thought we woud be extremely fortunate as we saw a whale slapping its head on to the water surface time after time with spy hops in between from far away. When we got closer though we realized that this humpback whale was in serious distress. It seemed to be stuck in a fishing net with one flipper and the lower part of its head. The special behaviours we saw from far were actually an attempt to get out of the net. Really heartbreaking to see a normally calm and graceful whale struggling so much! We stayed with it for half an hour until the weather got too rough and we couldn’t find it anymore. Hence, we really hope it managed to disentangle itself somehow! All the other boats and companies have been informed to keep an eye out for it in the afternoon. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for this humpback whale.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth