The atmosphere in the fjord is changing, the autumnal feel is creeping in with some very “Vikingish” vibes. The sea is calm and clouds are lying quite low which makes the light very flat. It can be in certain situations very nice for taking photographs, on the other hand, can be also more challenging to spot whales from a longer distance.

Given that information, we did not have to go far at all this morning. We managed to find Piccolo roaming along with another Humpback Whale side by side by Gásir, it is something that does not happen very often, and these species would associate together and lunge feed like we have been able to observe just recently. This behaviour itself can remind you of a fascinating spectacle that happens on the Alaskan shores. A feeding technique called bubble net feeding. Humpback Whales swim in circles and release bubbles in spirals to herd little schooling fish and krill in a tight space. After that, they would simultaneously lunge out of the water surface with their mouths open to feed on that. This is such a show that I would not hesitate to call it the best you can see in the animal kingdom when it comes to the volume of this show. Now what we are seeing recently here is quite possibly the same feeding technique on a little smaller scale. We do know that this behaviour is taught, so it might be happening because one of the new-coming whales changed the migration route and learned this behaviour in different feeding grounds. Now if this is true and it will teach other whales over here to do it, we might more and more often get to see this unbelievably spectacular show. We are all super stoked to see it and if you will see it yourself, trust me, your jaw will drop!

We were watching these two mostly swimming from one side to another and they were really surprisingly close to the shore at some point. We took a little journey a bit more North as we like to give them more space. We found a Minke Whale on the way and then we got to see 2 more Humpback Whales, also swimming together just by Svalbarðseyri. It is really fun even for us, who have worked within this environment for some time to see so much wildlife not to mention how close they were to Akureyri.

Text & Photos:David

Departures: Classic - 0900, 1000, 1300, 1400 & 1700. Express - 1000 & 1400 O’Clock