A Walrus in Skjálfandi Bay!!!

Today’s 13:30 tour was a very special tour for both passengers and crew onboard “Bjössi Sör”: We had just left Húsavík harbour as we suddenly saw something surfacing just a few hundred metres from our boat. We were not sure what it was: A small whale? A seal? But as we got closer and closer we realized that it was a WALRUS!!! What a nice surprise! It was the first time ever that a walrus as seen on our whale watching tours in Skjálfandi Bay and it was also the first time for captain Hrólfur and me that we saw a walrus in the wild!

We spent about 20-30 minutes with the walrus and we got some amazing looks at it, quite close to the boat. It came up with the head, taking some good looks at us with the white tusks clearly visible. And as the walrus was so close to us, we could also clearly hear it when it came up to the surface to breath! We were just really excited!

Later on we encountered a minke whale (we also saw a minke whale on the morning tour), which we could follow for a while, but the main attraction on this tour was definitely the walrus, a very rare visitor to icelandic waters (they are usually found much further north in the arctic).

Christian, guide

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