Author: laki

We had another great day today with the orcas of west Iceland. On both our tours today we encountered around 20 orcas travelling and feeding in Breiðafjörður. On the first tour the orcas were travelling really slowly, bringing their heads out of the water when they surfaced into a wave. They were followed by a lot of Arctic terns, something we have not seen before. These are not the birds that usually associate with the killer whales as we believe the two animals feed on different kinds of fish. However, today the terns were certainly finding something to eat around the orcas. We also saw some social activity from the orcas, with some heads out of the water as this group was made up of four core groups of killer whales we know here. We briefly saw one white-beaked dolphin near the boat on this tour as well.
In the afternoon we found the same group of orcas travelling and socialising. The terns had now left them and we drifted with the killer whales as they foraged, travelled and again did some socialising with a couple of nice spy-hops. On this tour we also saw a group of white-beaked dolphins close to the boat, in beautiful calm seas, and a Minke whale surfacing in the distance. Judith (Tour guide)
#orcas #killerwhales #whalewatching #lakitours #iceland #westiceland#orca #killerwhale #nature #ocean #dolphins #whitebeakeddolphins#Minkewhale #blackfish #spyhop

Between our two tours today we saw six species of cetaceans! We had two great trips out today, with quite different sightings. On the first tour we saw a group of white-beaked dolphins and briefly glimpsed harbour porpoises and a Minke whale. But the main sightings were two humpback whales, fairly unusual animals to see here. They were slowly travelling west. We then found a group of killer whales feeding north of Ólafsvík, our home port in summer. It was great to see the orcas again.
On the second tour we again saw white-beaked dolphins, only a small group, and then found killer whales once again. We ended up seeing two groups, the second consisted of two families travelling together. We got some great looks at the orcas very close to the boat as we drifted with them. Then we got to see our sixth species of the day, a big sperm whale in deeper water. We got a very close look at him as he swam towards us as we just drifted, and then later we got to see him lift his fluke out of the water on a deep dive. What a great day! Judith (Tour guide)
#iceland #whalewatching #lakitours #westiceland #killerwhales #orcas#humpbackwhale #spermwhale #dolphins #nature #ocean #pottwal#cachalot #whales #porpoises #whitebeakeddolphins #orca #killerwhale

We finally got back out on the water today after a prolonged period of bad weather. It turned into a sperm whale day on both tours. We did see a Minke whale on our morning tour as well, but on both tours we spent most of our time with the sperm whales. We saw a number of sperm whales going down on deep dives, lifting their flukes, on both tours. One whale in particular lifted his tail very high out. There are not many places in the world you can see the big, male sperm whales on a short trip and close to land, like we can here on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. We don’t even know for sure what the sperm whales here are feeding on, but we are very happy to see them. There is still so much to learn about whales around the world. Judith (Tourguide)  #spermwhales #spermwhale #iceland #westiceland #cachalot #pottwal#nature #whalewatching #lakitours #whales #ocean #wildlife

After a long scout on our afternoon tour today we were rewarded with a close-up sperm whale sighting. The whale lifted its fluke right next to our boat as he went down for a deeper dive. After a quick check with our sperm whale ID chart it turns out that this was indeed the very first sperm whale identified in the summer 2014 – BF001, nicknamed “Smaug”. Good to see he’s still around! 
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #whales #spermwhale #cachalot#pottwal #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #ocean #May #fluke#identification

Two Láki trips were going out from Ólafsvík today at 9am and 1pm, both of them very successful. On our morning tour we spotted a group of white-beaked dolphins early in the tour, then headed further out to watch several groups of orcas. We could even see two spy hops! Our afternoon tour had three different species – orcas, one sperm whale, and one Minke whale. The sperm whale lifted the fluke next to our boat and even the Minke whale was very approachable. Tomorrow we are only running one tour at 1pm.
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #dolphins #whitebeakeddolphins#whales #spermwhale #pottwal #cachalot #Minkewhale #Zwergwal #nature#wildlife #ocean #sunshine #landscape #birds #birdlife #puffins #gannets#terns #May