24/2/14 We knew after seeing nothing yesterday that today could only get better and it did! Most of the morning tour was uneventful, though the 2-3 Grey Seals on Melrakkaey Island were nice to watch, but luck struck for real on the way back to harbour when a dorsal fin caught our attention. It turned out to be that of a White-beaked Dolphin and it wasn’t alone. The dolphins kept us company by bowriding for a while but then we spotted a seagull feeding frenzy towards the harbour and went there. This turned out to be a wise thing to do as not only were there gulls present but also some more dolphins. We found that the reason for the frenzy was a shoal of a fish that may have been stray Capelin; at least it was too small to be Herring and did not look like it. Most of the Capelin has not yet reached us but it is south and west of Snæfellsnes Peninsula at the moment and we hope it will find its way to our neck of the woods as there is every chance that they will bring with them some feasting Humpback Whales. At any rate, it was awesome to observe this feeding frenzy and it did not ruin the experience that the dolphins had a very young calf that came close to us on several occasions. It was a wonderful end to the tour. On the afternoon tour we knew that we would most likely be restricted to Grundarfjörður due to the wind outside. Our scouts had also told us that there were a number of Orcas over in Kolgrafarfjörður so we were not too hopeful that there might also be some here. Hence we decided that we should emphasize trying to locate the dolphins again. They had gone, though, but possibly for a very pleasant reason, that of the presence of two Orcas, a male and female, not far from Grundarfjörður. We were thrilled and this shows you that anything can happen in whale-watching. Whatever the reason was that caused them to want to be here on their own (romance?) and away from their pod, we thank them with all our hearts!
Fjord of Plenty
24/02/2014: Our bus tour is called “Fjord of Plenty” for a reason! Today we felt the abundance of wildlife in every corner. Not only did we spot a lot of
white-tailed eagles, grey and (jumping) common seals, eider ducks and white-beaked dolphins – in addition, there was a group of about eight killer whales inside the fjord and we could get a good look at them from a distance!
Marie (Tour Guide)
