We have had a number of Northern Bottlenose Whale sightings around the fjords of Iceland this summer. While this species is not extremely rare here, the numbers of sightings around the country, many of them deep inside fjords is a little unusual. We do not know if it is linked to some kind of activity taking place in the deep water around Iceland which could be scaring the whales closer to shore. There is a lot of speculation however we will probably never know.
The fjord I work in outside Holmavik, Westfjords has had this species in a couple of times before that we know about, however we have only ever seen bottlenose whales quite far away in the past.
But on this day in August a group of four individuals approached the boat when we had turned the engines off. We had been trying and failing to take a look at them for a while, only ever seeing them in the distance but the whales diving long before we got anywhere near them.
On our last try though they had popped up behind us unexpectedly as we had been leaving the area. So the captain turned off the engines and a few minutes later they surfaced right next to us giving us all a huge fright. It is so amazing to see these somewhat elusive whales so close and they circled us for a short time, taking a few breaths very close by. As quickly as it had happened they left and dived and so we left them alone, wishing them well and hoping they will not strand.
I am happy to say we have not seen them recently in the fjord and we hope they are continuing life out in deeper water.
We also got to see a humpback whale also, our more regular species in this area.
It was feeding, then resting and then fluking.
This individual is a whale that has been spotted also off Greenland, the only individual I have seen in my area that has also been documented off Greenland. I call it Fishy due to the small fish shape on the bottom right of its tail.
-Judith
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