THE« Hvalasúpa » OR WHALE SOUP
🐳 “Whale soup” sounds odd—especially to whale watchers—but in Húsavík it’s the best thing you can hear on the VHF before heading out. It means there are so many whales in the bay that you lose count, and sailing through them feels like moving through a giant soup of whales. Guides also joke “whales everywhere o’clock,” because there are blows in every direction, making the clock system useless.
☀️June in Húsavík is famous for whale abundance. It’s often when the big blue whales show up, and humpback numbers peak. This June was exceptional. Early in the month, at least six different blue whales visited to feed, including a mother with a curious calf—pure magic for crew and passengers.
Then the humpbacks surged, culminating in a wild gathering on the evening of the 23rd.
⚓️ Halli, one of our seasoned captains, radioed: “Can someone wake me from this dream?” as 40+ humpbacks fed north of Puffin Island. Many stayed overnight, spread across the bay, then regrouped farther north on the 24th. Some formed feeding teams of 6–8, bubble-net feeding with stunning coordination. Others slapped their pectoral fins, seemingly signaling to nearby whales.
📸 💫Between gasps of amazement, our whale-obsessed team photographed as many flukes as possible to identify and catalog individuals.
With @Happywhale, we pulled some remarkable numbers for June 22–26:
* 74 individual humpbacks identified in the bay.
* 6 matches to regions outside Iceland—rare for us—including Cabo Verde, the British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, Svalbard, and Ireland.
* 8 different whales seen with calves—also unusual for Húsavík.
* The oldest recorded individual was first seen in 1992 (“Junebug”), and 22 whales had prior sightings dating back to 2020 or earlier—another uncommon pattern here.
✨🐋 In short: June brought true “soup” to Húsavík—blues, abundant humpbacks, coordinated feeding, and a treasure trove of IDs that will deepen our understanding of these giants.
Text & Photos by Joséphine (captain/head guide)
