Professional whale watching was established in Iceland in 1995 and is now one of the highlights for people visiting the country. In accordance to the distribution of the whales, all whale watching operators are located either in the west or north of the country.

A total of 2.200 passengers went whale watching with several operators around the country in the first year. North Sailing carried 1.750 out to Skjálfandi Bay that summer and claims to be the first operator offering organized whale watching tours on professional boats.

Now 13 years later there are 9 operators in 7 locations that offer whale watching and in the summer of 2007 the number of whale watchers exceeded 100.000 people.