Daily Diary – June 25th 2023

Whale watching on Amelia Rose in Faxafloi. Sailing from Reykjavik old harbour. Written by Lucky Byfleet.

We set sail on our whale-watching adventure with very calm seas, almost mirror flat, which is unusual for Iceland. There was still a brisk wind which made the day cold, but for whale watching the conditions were perfect.

There were a lot of seabirds in the ocean which is normally a very good sign as that means there is a lot of fish. Often we find whales and birds in the same area as they are eating the same food.

The first whale we saw was a minke whale, but as is so often the case it was moving very fast, much harder to observe than the relaxed humpbacks. Still, it was wonderful to see its sleek form moving effortlessly through the water. We saw several more as we carried on out to the main feeding grounds. Minke whales can be differentiated by the shape of the dorsal fins as well as their markings, so we knew we had multiple different ones.

Later in the tour we came across a couple of humpback whales, which hung around the boat for a while and showed us their tails which was great for everyone to see. We got some great photos! There was also a lot of porpoises around, which is unusual as normally they are very shy, but this day they seemed much more curious than normal.

We also found white beaked dolphins, which means we found all four species today! As well as seeing many puffins and sea birds.