Author: laki

09/04/2015: We went out on a beautiful sunshine morning tour today, but, unfortunately, did not encounter any cetaceans. Killer whales were seen close to the harbour in the early morning, but were moving out of the area long before our tour started. Tomorrow we are planning a tour at 10 o`clock and will try our luck in search of orcas again!
Marie (Tour Guide)

04/04/2015: The killer whales seem to stay in the area for longer now! Our morning tour today encountered not only a group of white-beaked dolphins, but also a pod of about 12 killer whales. While we had close approaches by the white-beaked dolphins, the killer whales were minding their own business and slowly travelling. We think that this might be “Von” (SN053)’s group again, but we gave the orcas their space as they were not up for close approaches, so we cannot tell IDs for sure. We also had to brave the winds and the rain – but even so, it was totally worth it!
Marie (Tour Guide)

02/04/2015: On our morning tour today we went all the way to Kolgrafafjörður, as we had a sightings report for a group of orcas in that area. Unfortunately, the killer whales had disappeared by the time we got there, but we had another very sunny day on the boat with great scenery to look at. Tomorrow we might run a tour at 2pm, but will only decide in the morning due to weather conditions, so stay tuned!
Marie (Tour Guide)

31/3/2014 – We gathered that the Orcas had been feeding in Kolgrafarfjörður since early this morning when we arrived around 14:00. Assuming they would soon be ‘fed up’ and about to leave, we decided to wait until they would. However, when we called the researchers upon arrival, they told us that the Orcas were still deep inside the fjord and showing no signs of being about to exit. We still decided to wait but instead of losing hope, decided to have the chocolate and see. Even so, the time came that we decided we could not wait any longer and started sailing away from the bridge. Then the phone rang. The Orcas had just passed under the bridge. We quickly turned the boat around and went back. And there they were, 7-8 of them, including a young calf that would only have been about a year old. They swam reasonably slowly, just as we would be walking after 6-7 hours of constant feeding, and so provided us with incredibly delightful views towards the end of a tour that had had its nerve-wracking moments of waiting.                 Baldur Guide

29/3/14 Several people that came with us on yesterday’s genius tour also had bookings today. We thought yesterday’s madness could not be beaten and so thought today’s tours would be a far cry from the spectacle that they had witnessed then but it turned out that Mother Nature had other ideas. Head researcher Fillipa Samara called Captain Gísli at 9 to tell him that there were Orcas inside Grundarfjörður so we went out in confidence that at least there would be some Orcas but we didn’t expect this sheer number of them; indeed Gísli estimated it to be over 100! Actively feeding all day on what would have been Herring that has been leaving Kolgrafarfjörður in recent days and has now found its way into Grundarfjörður; they gave us the performance of a lifetime in between feeding and resting breaks in the shape of belly-ups, fluke-ups, flippers showing, spyhopping, half-breaching and so on. Just one of those days when this doesn’t feel like a job at all!  Baldur Guide

28/3/14 A lovely day with flat water and almost no wind, it was even quite warm. We first went to the west as someone who had scouted Kolgrafarfjörður in the morning hadn’t seen any Orcas there. We spotted what first looked like our first Minke Whale (as it had an arch on its back and disappeared as soon as we’d seen it – both typical for Minke Whales) but it turned out to be a White-beaked Dolphin travelling. While there were at least two of them, we saw them only three times and then we lost them. But it all happened; Captain Skarphéðinn turned the boat around suddenly and went eastbound full speed. When we asked him, he told us that he had received a call from our other captain Gísli, who had seen a pod of Orcas from land about 20 minutes where we were at the time. So, driven by hunger for Orcas after yesterday’s non-sighting tour, we went there and lo and behold, there they were, 20-30 of them, dispersed in 3-5s and actively feeding with tail-splashes and drives on what the fish-finder told us was at least 10 meters thick layer of Herring under us. What a tour it was! What a show! Baldur

25/03/2014: We at Láki Tours are having a blast! The herring has returned to Grundarfjörður in bigger amounts – and so have the whales! Both our morning tours and our afternoon trip saw lots of orca. They were busy feeding most of the time, but now and then were also resting at the surface. On top of it, we could even watch them in the sunlight today!

Marie (Tour Guide)

22/3/14 After two and a half days of no tours due to storm, we were in dire need for a good day. With the forecast showing what looked like would be a windless afternoon on Saturday, we were relieved to finally be able to go out and search for our friends. The only question was where they might be. Someone had been over to Kolgrafarfjörður in the morning but hadn’t seen any there. But just before 13:00, 30 minutes before the presentation was to start, a hotel guest came rushing down the stairs to inform us that he had seen Orcas inside Grundarfjörður through his room window! Binoculars up and lo and behold, there they were, five minutes from port! We decided to skip the presentation, quickly assembled everyone that had made a reservation for the tour, and went out. What looked like 5-10 animals seen from land were in fact closer to 30, dispersed around the fjord in perhaps 5 batches, feeding on what looked like a vast amount of Herring that had entered the fjord during the storm. As it was almost no wind, and so we weren’t at a risk of drifting off, the captain didn’t even have to keep the engine in neutral, he could just shut it off entirely so we could all just immerse ourselves with the Orcas and Grundarfjörður at its best. It was just one of those days that made us not feel like we were working at all!