In the past days we have seen some very friendly and curious humpback whales! They have been approaching our boats, spy-hopping, pec-slapping, and rolling around. As our guide Selma said "The whales have been human watching"! Our guide Pedro took this incredible video of two humpbacks near our RIB on a GG2 tour, with one giving our passengers and crew a thorough examination! He captions the video: "The best day since I am in Iceland.
As part of my PhD project through the University of Iceland’s Husavik Research Centre, and in collaboration with Gentle Giants, I have been using our trusty sea-angling boat Aþena to conduct some fieldwork this summer.
The past few days we've been blessed with wonderful weather and sightings out in the bay. The sun has been shining and the sea has been flat and mirroring like a lake. Humpback whales were seen relaxing in the sunshine and dolphins have been incredibly playful: if not jumping high out of the water, they've been chasing the boats or were trying to socialise (or maybe rather bother) the humpback whales around whilst showing up with several hundreds individuals over the entire bay.
We left Husavik's harbor early this morning at 8AM for the first scheduled "GG2 Big Whale Safari and Puffins". For long we were the only boat out there and we decided to cross over to the mountains on the other side of the bay.
Did you ever think of being able to watch the midnight sun out at sea whilst being surrounded by whales? Imagine that perfect shot of the whale's fluke when it leaves for a dive, the bright orange sky and the sun shining in a dark yellow tone right above the horizon on the photo's background.
The video below was taken by Ken Turner, who recently joined us on a whale watching trip out in Skjálfandi Bay. Apart from dolphins, some hungry humpback whales showed up. The whales were surfacing with widely open mouths filled with prey.
In the past couple of weeks we have been lucky enough to see not only one, but two mother and calf pairs in the bay! The first pair sighted was an incredibly large humpback whale mother feeding in the north of the bay with a calf sticking close by her side.
During the summer time in the bay, we are sometimes able to witness the impressive humpback whale feeding behaviour known as “lunge-feeding”. Lunge-feeding is a technique used by large baleen whales, such as the humpback whale, as an efficient way to eat a lot of prey at once.
Throughout the past days blue whales have been sighted on several of our departures.
When it comes to whale watching, no two tours are the same. Whales change their behaviour so quickly and especially humpback whales are able to show off in very different ways. Throughout the month we were able to watch them feeding actively, socialise with other individuals or showing their power and acrobatic skills by slapping flippers or tail onto the surface as well as by breaching out of the water.
