MEETING AN OLD WHALE FRIEND
Sometimes nature is not only unpredictable, but also offering many surprises. Although we did not encounter the blue whale again, we were welcomed by an “old friend”.
We had just left the harbour some minutes ago and hence, I was still introducing the whales of Skjálfandi to the passengers and was about explaining that it might take us a while until we reach the area, where we had been seeing whales on the past trips. In the same moment the captain yelled really surprised, pointing a few meters away, where a humpback whale just raised its fluke, the tail, out of the water.
But that was not the only surprise of the moment. Waiting for the whale to show up again, it made us cringe when it broke the surface just in front of the boat. After watching the humpback breathing, drifting next to our boat for a few minutes and finally, raising its fluke again for a deep dive, it turned out, that this whale was not here for the first time.
Humpbacks can be identified by the patterns on the underside of their flukes, but also by the shape of their dorsal fins as both features are as unique as our fingerprints.
The animal we were observing that morning had a really extraordinary fin on its back, with a pattern of white scratches and scars. The uneven shape could be a sign of that it has been involved in a fight. The captain and I recognised that fin immediately and after having a closer look at the fluke it was for sure: that humpback spent some weeks in Skjálfandi Bay between the end of June and August last year.
SARAH
Here are some of guide Sarah's photos of the humpback which they also met last year.
