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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

Saturday, 30 March 2024

The weather conditions today were challenging and unfortunately we were unable to find any whales on our tour today. We sailed to Hjalteyri, where there had been reports of Humpback Whales earlier in the day, and sailed around this area slowly trying to look for any signs of cetaceans. We did spot Harbour Porpoises to my great surprise given the very large waves, but, came up short when it came to seeing anything larger. We sailed back slowly maintaining our search, however, this also came to no avail. All of our passengers received their customary complimentary tickets.

Text: Mac

Departure: 1300 O’Clock Classic

Friday, 29 March 2024

The conditions today fluctuated drastically throughout. We had a strong eastern wind for the whole duration of the day but increasing and decreasing visibility with strong snowing restricting sighting distance down to a couple hundred meters.

Despite the conditions we located whales in both of the day’s tours. In the morning we found 2 Humpback Whales around Rauðavik, the same place as yesterday. Here we had more typical 5 and dive displays with Camel showing high flukes and Magnea giving its very typical low fluke. Upon leaving we witnessed a tail throw and singular tail slap a little to the north of us, a possible feeding behaviour as there were countless diving birds and large numbers of schooling fish. In the afternoon we only found one of these individuals sand it was Magnea, a little south of Hjalteyri. The whale was surfacing in front and behind numerously with classic 5 and dives and on one occasion surfacing out of no where, literally, 1 meters from the bow. It gave myself and our passengers quite a fright, but, and excellent opportunity to detail and discuss the whales anatomy.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departures: 0900 & 1300 O’Clock Classic

Thursday, 28 March 2024

The weather today consisted of a moderate North Eastern wind and snowing low visibility clouds, this improved through the tour and on our return south most of the clouds had cleared revealing the mountains.

We sailed north to just north of Hjalteyri, ruðavik area where we found a Humpback Whale. This whale was our dark fluke individual, Magnea, an MVP of the winter period. The whale was diving for roughly 5 minutes at a time, but, behaving in its usual way of only slightly lifting the tail. The whale surfaced in front and behind many times and appeared to be following a large shoal of fish detected on the fish-finder below us in the area. On many occasions the whale surfaced directed towards us so we enjoyed several close encounters as the whale swam along side, allowing us to listen to its breath.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 O’Clock Classic

Wednesday, 27 March 2024

We had fantastic weather conditions today. No wind, a bit of snow and mostly a mirrorlike fjord!
During our tours today, we encountered several pods of Harbor Porpoises south of Hjalteyri, the diverse birdlife of our fjord along the way, such as a Northern Gannet, and one Humpback Whale north of Akureyri!
On our morning tour, we witnessed the Humpback Whale just outside of Akureyri, by the warm waterfall. There, the whale kept poking its mouth and head out of the water surface, as if it was playing with the ice on the surface. Such an impressive and interesting encounter! We could see the Humpback resurface several times after short deep dives and on this super calm day, we even heard its breath many times!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tours 09:00 & 13:00 o’clock.

Tuesday, 26 March 2024

We had great sailing conditions today with hardly any wind, a flat sea as well as great visibility!
Sailing out after breaking the ice in our harbor, we spotted many different bird species, such as Northern Fulmars, and we encountered Harbor Porpoises, one Humpback Whale and one Minke Whale north of the green buoy! The Humpback even showed some feeding indicators and came up to the surface to breathe very often, after short deep dives.
What en exciting tour! We had beautiful, sunny conditions and many great encounters with these cetaceans in Eyjafjörður today!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Monday, 25 March 2024

Today, we had a fantastic tour! We sailed in cold weather, with the wind picking up as we sailed out a bit further north, but overall we had good conditions.
Just as we left the harbor of Akureyri, we spotted the first indicators of a cetacean! We encountered one feeding Humpback Whale, saw very active lunge feeding and had extremely pleasant encounters.
It was incredibly beautiful to watch this Humpback Whale resurface over and over again, while feeding at the surface!
Additionally, we saw many different bird species feeding around the whale, also picking out their food.
It was a true spectacle. And we had many close encounters. Several times, the Humpback surfaced right in front of us, meters away from our boat Hólmasól!
This was a breathtaking tour and we cannot wait to sail out again in Eyjafjörður tomorrow!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Sunday, 24 March 2024

The weather today was near perfect with mostly glassy seas and minimal wind. The visibility was okay, however, did fluctuate greatly throughout the day.

On our first tour we sailed to Hjalteryri where we briefly encountered a Humpback Whale. Unfortunately after seeing this whale, ourselves and three other tour operators all failed to see this whale again. A great reminder for the unpredictable ability of the wild environment we sail in. On our second tour we encountered another Humpback Whale, likely the same individual, almost 20 miles from where we saw it on the first tour. We saw this whale by Svalbarðseyri and it was swimming at a speed of roughly 4 mph. It continued to behave like this for the whole tour, rarely fluking with large inter-breath intervals.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departures: 0900 & 1300 O´Clock Classic

Saturday, 23 March 2024

The weather today improved throughout the tour, but the strong northern wind was making significant waves.

We sailed out to just south of the green buoy where in the distance we could see several large splashes. They were very distinct from the many wave splashes we could see. It was a Humpback Whale breaching. At the time of the breaches the whale was being passed very closely by a container ship, most likely the reason for the jumping. We got closer to the whale and watched the travelling behaviour as the whale moved up the East side and then across to the West. Despite the traveling behaviour and short inter-breath intervals we were seeing regular flukes. The whale then interestingly spent quite a bit of time in the extreme shallows to the West of the green buoy, less than 10 meters deep.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 O’Clock Classic

Wednesday, 20 March 2024

The weather today was very pleasant, almost zero wind that picked up from the East on our return; clear skies and good visibility; and a medium sized northern swell.

We sailed to just South of Hjalteyri where we encountered 2 Humpback Whales. The whales were several hundred meters apart and we spent time with both of them. Our first whale, Magnea, was moving slowly South and appeared to be feeding. No fluking, but, short breath intervals and frequent changes of direction. The feeding activity was later confirmed to us with several lunge feeds and surface straining behaviours. We also witnessed some interesting behaviour as the whale seemed to roll around at the surface, at one point exposing its eye for us to see. The second whale, Camel, was diving deeper giving some more typical 5 and dive behaviours with high flukes.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Tuesday, 19 March 2024

We sailed out in southern wind, with some swell, but the sun was shining!
Today, we encountered two Humpback Whales by Hjalteyri. We had several close encounters with both Humpbacks and one of them even tail slapped several times! It was already a great tour with amazing encounters, when we sailed out further and encountered one BLUE WHALE by Hauganes!!! This is super, super rare, as they are not seen inside our fjord very often. We were absolutely thrilled. We got to see the biggest animal on earth today, as it surfaced by our boat to take a big, loud breath! It was unbelievable to see the size of this whale up close.
This is a day to remember and we are still trying to wrap our heads around everything that we got to witness today. Absolutely stunning. What a tour!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Monday, 18 March 2024

Today’s weather was mild. There was a moderate northern breeze creating some small waves, but, a considerable swell. The visibility was okay and improved throughout the tour.

We sailed to Hjalteyri where we encountered a Humpback Whale. This whale was behaving very different to the previous weeks and appeared to be sleeping/resting. The whale moved very slowly, breathing very frequently, and never showed the fluke. Because of this, we were able to stay very close to the whale, without moving and without disturbing it. The whale maintained this behaviour for the whole tour, giving us confidence in the fact we had not reduced its vital resting period. We witnessed many close sights of thew whale and managed to hear the breath very clearly on almost every surfacing.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Saturday, 16 March 2024

The weather and sailing conditions were incredible today! Great visibility, a flat fjord and no wind. A super beautiful, sunny day.
During our tour, we encountered several pods of Harbor Porpoises as well as many different bird species. We additionally spotted one Humpback Whale south of Hjalteyri! We had great encounters with this whale and saw it plenty of times as it resurfaced over and over again after very short dives in between! We saw it close to us and heard its breath, when it surfaced. These encounters were just stunning in the calm scenery of Eyjafjörður.
We truly enjoyed the weather, scenery and of course the cetaceans on our tour today!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Friday, 15 March 2024

Our weather conditions today were near perfect with glass-like seas and no wind. We did, however, have fairly low visibility with low hanging cloud.

Our first sighting was the Humpback Whale we have names ‘Camel'. It was feeding in the area just around from the harbour in front of the industrial area. The whale was seen moving frequently around this area and up towards Svalbarðseyri showing prime evidence of feeding activity. We saw several surface straining behaviours and even a singular lunge feed where the whale surfaced with its mouth still agape.

We traveled slightly further out in search of our second whale, and we found it located in the shallows around the green buoy. Here was our second Humpback Whale, Magnea. This whale was seen traveling quickly, again seemingly chasing food, on the edge of the shallow water just a few meters deep. Because the water was so shallow, we did not see any fluking behaviours, but, we were able to track the whales movements via the footprints it was leaving on the surface from swimming so shallow. We also had some prime evidence of feeding here in the form of surface straining. As we decided the leave we observed a very strange behaviour, the whale lunged out of the water to feed and then followed this with a series of head stands sitting motionless with the fluke out of the water. The whale then moved the fluke back and forward several times before going up and down in the water. This continued for several minutes.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Thursday, 14 March 2024

Our weather conditions today were overcast with a moderate, cold, eastern wind.

Today we encountered both Camel and Magnea; the two Humpback Whales we have been seeing across recent weeks and have subsequently named. Once again they were in the place we have frequently encountered them, between Svalbarðseyri and our harbour with a great deal of movement in this area throughout the tour. Magnea demonstrated prime evidence of feeding in the form of surface straining, and on one occasion almost a lunge feed like surface. Magnea appeared to be chasing some sort of fish close to the surface, changing directions frequently; exploding up and straining; and rarely fluking. Camel was behaving slightly different, with shorter inter-breath intervals, however, showing us its black and white fluke frequently.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Wednesday, 13 March 2024

Weather: Overcast skies with poor visibility; heavy snowing; and minor norther wind creating small breaking waves.

On our today we encountered 2 Humpback Whales located between our harbour and Svalbarðseyri. These individuals are once again the same 2 we have been seeing in recent weeks, showing consistent behaviours with previous encounters. Our first whale was observed with numerous high flukes while the second whale, Magnea was only seen fluking on one occasion. This fluke, however, was quite interesting in that the whale dived very slowly not arching much of the back but then almost stopping while horizontal to wave the fluke back and forward several times. An interesting display of elegance.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Tuesday, 12 March 2024

Another great day out on the fjord! Fantastic, calm weather conditions and good visibility.
During our tour, we encountered several pods of Harbor Porpoises as well as two different Humpback Whales around Svalbarðseyri! The whales showed similar behavior as they did in the recent days, mostly coming up for one or two breaths before arching their backs to go for a deep dive.
Our absolute highlight of the day was when one of the Humpbacks lifted its tail really high above the surface, indicating a deep dive, just before it breached!!! We got to see one full body breach close to us. It was simply amazing, a moment of a lifetime.
We are extremely excited for the tour tomorrow!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Monday, 11 March 2024

Our conditions today were mostly flat with a slight northern wind and chill in the air.

We sailed to just north of Svalbarðseyri on the East coast. Here, we encountered our first Humpback Whale. We stayed with this whale while it swam north and then west across the fjord, rarely fluking, often with large breath intervals. We saw primary evidence of feeding with a sights of surface straining. We also saw a second Humpback here that was swimming south, however, harder to spot and also not fluking. Some time later our whales converged and we were once again treated to repeated tail throwing and simultaneous breaching from both whales. An incredible display. It has started to seem as thought my streak of missing the breaching was over, however, of course most of the breaching today happened while I was fiddling my camera. Typical.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic