Wednesday, July 13, 2016

ACROBATS OF THE OCEAN

What an amazing time out on the water on yet another day with the passengers of the cruise ship "Ocean Diamond" (Iceland Pro Cruises)!

Both, guests and crews on-board, were enjoying the boat ride in the bay and the placid calm water which looked like a mirror throughout the trips early this morning.
Atlantic puffins were getting out of their nests on Lundey (Puffin Island) to go fishing. Some had already started to fish once we got to the area and we could see them with their colourful beaks full of eels. This is the right time of the year to see these amazing birds as they will be all gone by the end of the summer.
After a little while, we decided to leave the puffins behind to start searching for bigger creatures.
We have been extremely lucky lately with the white beaked dolphins and again today, we spotted a large group not far from the puffin colony.
But as lovely as the birds and dolphins were, it had to be a humpback who again became the highlight of the tour. It is always fascinating to see these giants surfacing to breath. These majestic mammals are known to have a large range of different surfacing behaviours and we were lucky enough to see a behaviour called "flipper slapping". The whale lifted and dropped its massive pectoral fin onto the surface many times which produced a huge splash.
Then, at some point it lifted its entire body out of the water to breach – again and again! That was followed by chin-slapping and another turn of flipper slapping! The whale offered us the ultimate show just before we had to start heading back to the harbour.

Come and join us to experience nature and be ready to expect the unexpected!