Fin whales and a breaching humpback whale!!!
Today was a very special day out here in Skjálfandi Bay with full of surprises!
We left the harbour at 10:00 onboard “Náttfari” and set the course towards the north-western part of the bay. After about 45 minutes of sailing, we spotted two black backs in the distance but as we sailed there we did not see any sign of a whale…..
We were waiting for a few minutes and all of a sudden we spotted a very high blow and as we got closer we realized that there were two fin whales in the area! What a surprise!
Fin whales are the second largest animals on earth (after the blue whale) and are rare visitors here in Skjálfandi Bay as they are usually found much further offshore.
But these two fin whales were obviously not afraid of our boat and we got some really nice and close-up looks at them!
Also the afternoon tour was a special one: First we sailed into the area where we saw the fin whales in the morning but as we did not find them again, we decided to sail further west, in the direction of the mountains. Once again we saw a blow from the distance, but this time it was the blow from a humpback whale!!! We got to see the humpback whale very close to the boat a couple of times and at one point, the humpback was even breaching completely out of the water two times in a row!!!
So even though it was a cold and rainy day, we had two very successful and special tours here in Húsavík today :-).
Christian, guide
It was a literally “big” surprise to see the Fin Whales in Skjálfandi Bay today (Photos: Christian Schmidt)