Friday, January 5, 2007
A fantastic year of 2006 with Gentle Giants

At the start of this new year, it is interesting to look back at past events that took place last year in 2006 with Gentle Giants’ operations.

Summer of 2006 was one of the best whale watching seasons ever for Húsavík … and when we at Gentle Giants come to think of it – probably the very best one yet – possibly one that will be hard to beat for some time!!! But, then again, we never know what to expect from our friendly friends in the Skjalfandi bay – so we anxiously await 2007.

From the beginning of the season until late September, Skjálfandi bay was alive with whales – with many different species spotted in the bay during the season - the most diverse amount since the beginning of whale watching in Húsavík! A few lucky Gentle Giants crew members actually had the privilege on the 30^th of April of greeting the first 4 humpbacks that arrived into the bay for the season to start, only 500 metres from the harbour of Húsavík.

In June, not only was there exceptional weather but also lots of activity within the bay from humpback whales; spouting, feeding, breaching and playing with their flippers. We celebrated Iceland’s national day, and by the end of the month, we also celebrated the visit of the first blue whales for the season. We had up to four of them around at the same time and sometimes only 30 minutes away from the harbour. Incredible big gentle giants with a powerful spout ca. 6-9 metres!

July is the month that is always the busiest – being the high travel season. More travellers arrive to Húsavík and many festivals take place in the town. We had Húsavík Festival: Swedish days and Candy days to celebrate without forgetting about the annual sea-angling competition held by Gentle Giants & GPG – with a record results in total catch in only 4 hours time. Minkes, dolphins, harbour porpoises, humpbacks and blue whales seemed to feel like staying with us to join all the events going on.

The highlight of August was on a morning tour on 19^th of August. This tour was without a doubt one of the most amazing trips ever with a “Jumping-Jack-Flash- Humpback” whale breaching hundreds of times and playing for more than 3 hours giving passengers the best trip ever – all soaking wet and smiling between their ears in perfect weather conditions; sunny, calm and warm. Weeks before that same humpback and others of his kind had been breaching often for our passengers – probably just warming up for the 300 jumps on the particular morning trip mentioned above………!!!

Finally a good September came with still very nice weather with dolphins and minkes around. At the end of the season we got a surprising visit from northern bottlenose whales and long-finned pilot whales. In the middle of the month the travel mart Vestnorden was held in Reykjavik. The travel mart is a good opportunity to get to know various travel possibilities in Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Two staff members from Gentle Giants attended the Vestnorden this year, and were very happy with the results and the feedback from it. Vestnorden 2007 travel mart will be held in the Faroe Islands.

In October our manager had turned to his professional-family-owned fishing vessel, working off from the North Coast – and even late in October he managed to see two humpbacks on the fishing grounds further out from the bay.

All in all this summer was definitely an excellent whale watching season - regarding weather conditions, passenger numbers and of course whales – and we are all looking forward to summer 2007!

In fact – it seems that nature conditions have been changing the past years up north and the whale watching seasons seem to get better each year – the past 5 years – at least we are visited more and more by the bigger gentle giants – feeding and clearly showing off for our passengers, like never before!

The owners of this company are proud of being the very first in Húsavík to start scheduled nature tours – whales, birds & fishing, from Húsavík in 1982 around Skjálfandi Bay – we will continue, sharing our real experience to our customers; an experience and real heritage from our ancestors – counted in centuries!!

We wish everyone - all our co-operators, travel agencies, and all our customers a very happy new year and hope to see you all here in Húsavík next summer!

Our kindest regards:

Stefán Guðmundsson – Managing/marketing director, Captain

Agnes Ýr Guðmundsdóttir – Assistant manager & sales

Daniel Annisius – Ticket sales & reception