Four species and an old friend

Once again we had a very successful whale watching day!

We encountered four different species: Close to the mountains a big feeding party was going on. Several Minke whales surfaced all around us, surrounded by hundreds of birds picking up the leftovers from the whales. In the same area a few Harbor porpoises popped up. Usually these small whales are very difficult to observe since they’re fast swimmers and often try to avoid the boats. But today conditions were great: The sea was calm and visibility good, which enabled us to get some nice looks at the Harbor porpoises.

In the morning we were also lucky to spot a group of about ten White beaked dolphins.

But the highlight were the Humpback whales. One of them was very entertaining and breached several times close to the boat – what an amazing sight! It’s incredible to see these large animals jumping out of the water! But there were even more surprises awaiting us: one of the humpback whales was a well-known individual! We observed it in Skjálfandi Bay last summer in July already. Interestingly, this whale was also spotted off the westcoast of Ireland in September 2013. Once again we got the proof that photo-identification is a very useful method to track the whales’ migration routes.

Luisa, guide