Whale watching in Iceland blog – 29Dec19

Wonderful whale watching tour in Iceland during the Christmas holidays, We found some playful white-beaked dolphins and glimpsed a harbour seal as well as loads of great cormorants, fulmars, gulls, eider ducks and guillemots.

Despite the wind the day was clear and bright with incredible views of the mountains all covered in snow. There was a little chop to the sea but our yacht cut through it easily as it left Reykjavik harbour. As we left the port be could see there were a lot of birds in the area around the islands. This isn’t unusual but the sheer quantity was, so we waited around a little while, watching the water underneath the birds.

It wasn’t long before we saw some dorsal fins and found some white-beaked dolphins in quite close to the islands. The pod was about 7 strong and they were extremely curious coming up to investigate us and play with the yacht Amelia Rose.

It was wonderful watching them fish and play, and have the feeding frenzy around us with all the birds, a real moment to remember for all of our customers who all got great photos of this awesome wildlife interaction. The rest of the trip went well, the inside of the yacht being a warm snug place for the customers to retreat to when they got too cold in the wind on the top viewing deck with our guides.

Several people found their way to the wheelhouse where they hung out with our friendly captain, who showed them the instruments he uses to plot our route and find our whales. From the wheelhouse it was nice and warm and cosy, but still with the incredible views of the snowy mountains and islands around us.

Despite heading out towards the feeding grounds the dolphins were the biggest cetacean we found that day but they put on a wonderful show and we were delighted to have them, especially so close to shore. We do get the large whales in amongst the islands but it’s an area that we more commonly see porpoises and seals than whales and dolphins.

Many people come to see the wonderful wildlife here, but they also come to see the bewitching northern lights, and we take people out again on our lovely super yacht Amelia Rose. When you book a whale watching tour with us you get 50% off your northern lights tour!

To learn more about whales click here.

For more information on our boats, our trips, and any accessibility questions please email us at seatrips@seatrips.is