Previously this week we had the pleasure of taking a group of Icelandic school students to beautiful Flatey. This time of year in Iceland is when the school year in Iceland ends. It is not uncommon for grade schools in Iceland to go on a school trip to celebrate the end of another semester.
Last week the cruise ship “Ocean Diamond” started its annual sailing route around Iceland. Which means that every ten days it comes for a visit here in Húsavík! The passengers gets the chance to experience the town, and of course to see the whales here in the whale watching capital of Iceland.
During the past days numerous humpback whales have started to arrive to Skjálfandi Bay – ten and more individuals were seen on the tours! Humpback whales come here for their feeding season and usually start to show up sometime in spring.
These are screenshots from a trailer for the American TV show Ocean Treks™ with Jeff Corwin, when he joined our humpback whale researcher Charla Basran on board our boat Aþena to learn how the study of whale vocalizations can help to understand the gentle giants better.
One of the humpback whales that has been encountered in our bay during the last days is this pretty and unusual one with black pectoral fins, named Flatbread. This photo was taken yesterday morning by our guide Natàlia while it let the people on board our oak boat Faldur admire its whole body's beauty up-close.
This morning we proudly invited a group of future Icelandic guides whale watching with us, for the fifth year in a row. They study at The Icelandic School of Travel and Tourism (Ferðamálaskóli Íslands) and are now doing a tour together around the island to get to know the key tourism places better.
Our captain Pétur just reported the great news that they on board our oak boat Sylvía currently are watching a humpback whale in the western part of our bay. Humpbacks have generally been one of our most frequently sighted whale species during the last years.
This energetic group of students from the local upper secondary school went with us on the afternoon whale watching tour today. They take a specially developed Whale Watching Guide course, unique for their school here in Húsavík – the Whale Capital of Iceland.
Today is First Day of Summer – a cheerful holiday in Iceland that brings a promise about brighter times ahead. To celebrate this we would like to share with you the heart-warming story about a very romantic moment on one of our whale watching tours the other day.
Two sperm whales are currently in Skjálfandi Bay and our captain Halli just gave a live report from on board RIB Amma Helga. He said the first one they found was logging on the surface which made it possible for the passengers to get a very peaceful close-up encounter with this special, and to us very rare, gentle giant.
