MYSTERIES OF THE DEEP OCEAN
As in previous years during August, northern bottlenose whales are making their appearance again in Skjálfandi Bay at the moment. Every now and then they seem to appear out of nowhere in different areas of the bay, spending some time breathing on the surface, before disappearing again in the depths beneath us - and more likely than not, aren't seen again for the next few hours.
Crossing their path when sailing through the bay is a truly lucky moment as they tend to not only dive for long times, but also swim far distances in the meantime, making it impossible to keep track of them in most occasions. Sometimes though they dive shorter, just about 10 minutes at a time, and our boats are able to observe them for a little while.
I fact, studies suggest that they're likely capable of holding their breath for up to two hours while diving up to 1500m deep. The deepest point in our bay is only about 220m deep, still this doesn't stop them from conducting long-lasting dives. While diving, bottlenose whales are believed to feed close to the bottom of the sea, mostly on deep-sea cephalopod such as squid, fish such a herring, sea cucumbers and sea stars.
Loving the deep cold waters, even up to sub-arctic temperatures, these whales are the largest members of the beaked whale family in the North Atlantic Ocean. They can grow up to 9.8m long and weigh between 5 and 7.5 tons.
Northern bottlenose whales are either found individually or in social groups averaging between two and ten individuals, but they have been observed in larger groups and loose aggregations of up to 50 animals. These groups may either be mixed or be segregated depending on age, sex, or life stage. Sometimes, an individual might be happy to just leave a group and go and do its own thing for a while, but it is likely that it joins its group again eventually - indeed, even long-term relationships between animals have be observed. On the other hand, males are known to be combative, using their large heads to hit one another.
Belonging to the group of the toothed whales, this species has two teeth in the lower jaw, but these teeth only emerge on the males.
Bottlenose whales are born with a rather dark skin color that then becomes lighter as they age - overall (and unlike most whale species) theor appearance is of brownish colour. Also, as they get older, their skin gets more and more streaked with scars from either tussles or bites of the cookiecutter shark, which is believed to be their only natural predator.
As their appearance in Skjálfandi Bay remains mysterious and unexpected, stay on the lookout whilst sailing with us - maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones!
- Sarah