Category: whale diaries

Passengers on our afternoon trip today had an awesome close-up experience with the orcas. After we had spotted a group of orcas feeding at a distance, we shut down the engines and drifted in the area, waiting for them to approach us. And so they did! Especially one juvenile was very inquisitive and circled the boat several times. As most of the group was busy feeding, we also could observe hundreds of gannets diving for the fish at the same time. It’s important to give orcas their space and leave it up to them whether they want to be close to the boat or not. Today they sure were up for it and checked on all the blue shapes on the boat! 😉
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #ocean #April

We had one whale watching tour today at 1pm, and just a few minutes out of the harbour we were surprised by the first Minke whale of this winter season! We only got a short glimpse of this fast-travelling whale, but were then also lucky enough to spot two orcas further out in the deeper waters. They were travelling slowly and very shallow right beneath the surface. It was a peaceful sight and we are hoping for more of this tomorrow, so join us at 1pm on tomorrow’s trip!
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #whales #Minkewhale #Zwergwal #nature #wildlife #ocean#April #Iceland #Westiceland

We had one whale watching tour at 1pm today, and did not have to search long for the orcas. Whereas we first spotted a small group travelling towards the East, we soon also came across a bigger group that was feeding in the area, with lots of gannets dive-bombing into the water in the same spot. We also spotted several puffins next to the boat, and so we got to see orcas, gannets and puffins on one trip!
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #gannet #Northerngannet #puffin #nature #wildlife #ocean#April #birds #birdlife #Iceland #Westiceland

We had three beautiful trips with orcas today! On all three trips, we could enjoy watching the orcas in the sunshine, while they were feeding and travelling, but on the evening tour, we also got to see a lot of socializing, as there were several groups coming together in the area. Especially the juveniles and calves were extremely playful, and breached and leaped repeatedly out of the water. We got to see several spy hops and cartwheels of the males, and this was a fantastic end to an exciting day!
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #ocean #sunshine#glacier #April

Today we were running three tours from Ólafsvík and had great sightings on all three of them. On our morning trip we got to see two male orcas, whereas in the afternoon we had about 30-40 individuals all around the boat, including a small calf. On our evening tour, we spent time with about 10 orcas when suddenly also a humpback whale popped up in front of us! It was a great day, and we are hoping for more of this on Friday as we had to cancel our tours tomorrow due to bad weather conditions.
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish#orca #killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #ocean#sunshine #snow #humpbackwhale #whales #Buckelwal #landscape

Two tours were going out from Ólafsvík today, and both of them had some breathtaking moments with orcas. In the morning, we scouted along the peninsula towards west, and were rewarded by watching two groups of orcas coming our way. In the afternoon, we did not have to go so far at all, as orcas were now feeding further east, with hundreds of gannets hovering over them and dive-bombing into the water to catch the herring that the orcas were hunting below. Unfortunately, our trips tomorrow have been cancelled due to bad weather conditions, but we are hoping to go out on sea again on Wednesday!
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish#orca #killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #ocean#landscape #April

We had one whale watching trip today at 1pm and did not have to go too far out in Breiðafjörður to spot some orcas that were on their way travelling east. It is a lot of fun to see them when they are travelling in a group, as they often come up together in a travel line, and especially the juveniles come with the head high out of the water when going against the waves. We had a bit of a choppy tour today, but we could observe the orcas in front of the still snowy Icelandic landscape, which was a very pretty sight!
Marie (Tour Guide) 
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #landscape #ocean#April

Our trip today was extraordinary! We spotted a group of about 15 orcas not too far from the coast this time, and watched them as they were foraging in the area. There was one particularly curious juvenile in the group that would circle our boat every time the main group stopped for another foraging dive. This juvenile seemed to be very interested in what was going on on the boat. As we were drifting with the engines completely off, the juvenile kept on circling us, while we watched the rest of the family going about their foraging business. What an incredible experience!
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #ocean #April

After a series of bad weather days we had the opportunity to go out on sea again today, and as we scouted along the peninsula we spotted three male orcas slowly travelling towards the West. There were a few more orcas further north, but we decided to stay with the three males because of the choppy sea. We could watch them riding the waves on both sides of the boat, lifting their heads high out of the water. We are planning on having another trip tomorrow at 1pm, and we are almost fully booked on this tour.
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish #orca#killerwhale #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife #ocean #April

We had one tour today at 10 am, and were delighted to show our passengers orcas again! Before we did so, they had to endure a little April fool’s joke (see video), but the real sighting afterwards sure made up for it. We got to see some very young calves today, one of them just a few weeks old. It was a rainy day with a very calm sea, and it was just wonderful to observe the orcas travelling with the Icelandic landscape in the background. Our tours tomorrow are cancelled due to bad weather conditions, and we will keep you updated for the beginning of next week!
Marie (Tour Guide)
#lakitours #boattour #whalewatching #orcas #killerwhales #blackfish#orca #killerwhale #calves #Iceland #Westiceland #nature #wildlife#ocean #April #AprilFoolsDay