A blue whale or a fin whale?

I just came in from a whale watching trip on Haukur with captain Gísli and it was really really nice. Just one or two miles out of the harbour there are basically blows everywhere you looked. All the blows from humpback whales that seemed to be feeding in the area. We started the tour though by going a bit further, joining Knörrinn, because they said they had seen either a fin whale or a blue whale. Once we were getting closer captain Hrólfur called us on the radio from Knörrinn and said he was now sure that this was a very young blue whale. Then we got there and had great difficulities in seeing it as it was alway just coming up once and then disappearing. But at least once we saw it good and then me and Gísli were certain that this was a fin whale. Guide Silke was also sure it was a fin whale but unfortunately none of us got a picture of it so the matter remains unsettled. We waited quite some time to try to see it again but without luck. So we turned to the humpback-area and first we saw one breaching three times and then we got one right next to the boat. We cut down the engine and the humpback just swam with us for a while. It was so nice.

Þórdís, guide.