Feeding and flipper slapping

There’s still no sign of the summer, although we’re desperately waiting for it. So today conditions were a bit challenging and we had to make our way through pretty high waves. But fortunately the whales don’t care about the weather. It took us some time to find the whales, but suddenly they surfaced all around us. We spotted at least five or six humpback whales and got some very close encounters with them. And what was most exciting about that sighting: They were busy feeding! They came up to the surface with their mouth wide open, filtering the food with their baleen plates and we got some wonderful looks on their extended throat.

It was fun to observe the arctic terns, small birds that were circling around the humpback whales, picking up their leftovers from the water. Often they gave us a hint for the area where the whales surfaced next time. Some of the humpback whales also produced bubbles to catch their prey.

The afternoon was even more exciting. Again we observed humpback whales feeding. But suddenly one of them turned on its back and started slapping its mighty flipper on the water surface! It seemed as if it was waving to us and gave us a wonderful show.

Luisa, guide