Great days with humpback whales

After a few amazing weeks with blue whales in the bay they seem to have left us but the humpback whales remain to our passengers great pleasure. The last days have been calm and nice, a bit foggy at times but that luckily hasn't prevented us from finding the humpbacks. They have been staying at…

Blue whale mania!

A mighty Blue whale beside our boat Bjössi Sör It´s been almost 4 weeks since the first Blue whale of the season came into our bay and it´s been truly amazing to enjoy their presence almost every day since! These creatures are truly mysterious and perhaps the most well known and interesting fact about the blue whale…

Café Skuld reopened

Café Skuld was reopened last week after a few improvements and is now a souvenir shop as well as a café with light courses. Café Skuld is probably the best place in town to sit down in a nice weather and enjoy the view over the harbour. Café Skuld was first opened in 2006 after…

Midnight sun tour

Yesterday, June 21st, was the longest day of the year here in Iceland. From now on the day will slowly getting shorter and shorter. The midnight sun was shining in the evening tour when captain Hreiðar and guide Þórdís sailed out to Skjálfandi bay with exited whale watchers.   Blue whale in the midnight sun…

Breaching humpback and minke!

We have had great luck with the whales in the past few days. Several blue whales, a breaching humpback and a breaching minke, orcas in two tours and of course the smaller dolphins and harbour porpoises.    The weather until today has been fine, some sunny days and some cloudy ones. Unfortunately today we had…

Whale paradise!

The last few days are hard to describe.  With up to 5 species in each trip and there amongst Blue whales, Humpback whales and Killer whales!   The days are long, the sun is shining (although it is rather cold still, especially out on sea) and abundance of whales. Up to 5 blue whales have…

The first Blue whale of the season

The first Blue whale of the season was spotted today!  Passengers on board Schooner Haukur had a whale of a time when they spotted 5 species of whales on their 3 day tour over the weekend.   One of the ca. 10 humpback whales spotted during the tour, most of them were in the Grímsey…

New whaling season starts

Today the first whale hunting boat went out this season. Their mission is to hunt minke whales but the minke whale has been one of the most important species when building up Icelandic whale watching which has been the fastest growing sector within tourism in Iceland since 1995.   North Sailing is strongly against whale hunting and in our…

A breaching minke whale!

The crew and passengers on Náttfari this afternoon got an amazing show when they spotted a minke whale that breached over 40 times. Minke whales are known to do this occasionally but it can be hard to know the purpose of this kind of behaviour. Whichever the reason is, it definitely is a feast for…

A whale project for kids

A group of youngsters from the local school went out this morning but the trip was a part of a whale   Hilda teaches the kids to fish and captain Hreiðar makes sure she does it right project that they participate in. The project is run by Þórhildur Jónsdóttir and the aim is to educate…

The first humpback whale of the season

Crew and passangers on Náttfari this morning had a lovely surprise when a humpback whale was spotted. This is the first tour of the season where a humpback whale is seen. The humpback whale seemed to be feeding but was quite relaxed and everybody got a really good look.   Three minke whales were also spotted…

Two trips a day in May

Tomorrow, May 1st, our schedule will change when we start to go whale watching twice a day, at 10:00 and 13:30. The trips in april have usually been successful, in total 4 species have been spotted: minke whales, killer whales, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises. For information and booking see here or contact us by e-mail…

Orcas in the bay!

On today's whale watching trip the crew and passengers on Náttfari found a group of Orcas. It was a group of 6-8 animals, scattered around a small area and the animals were obviously feeding. They were pretty calm and everyone had a really nice look. White-beaked dolphins were also spotted on the tour.   Orcas, also named Killer…

First trip of the season yesterday

Yesterday, Náttfari with 24 passengers sailed out on the first trip of the season. As can be expected in April it was a cold tour but the bay was beautiful and a small group of dolphins were spotted. Everyone got a good look and were really glad to see dolphins in their natural habitat. Quite a lot of birds were…

Season start – coming up!

This year, we have decided to pre-start the season in Skjálfandi bay on Sunday April 12th and Monday  13th at 13:30 (weather permitting).  So far, summer hasn´t arrived after quite heavy snow storm at the end of March, but we are waiting anxiously for it to show up and bring our bay to life.   If…

Scientific project continues

A few weeks ago we reported about the scientific project that Dr. Marianne Rasmussen and Edda Elísabet Magnúsdóttir Phd. student are working on in Skjálfandi bay. Two EAR's (Ecolocical Acoustic Recorder) have been in the bay the last months but Marianne and Edda retrieved both the EAR's last month and are now working on the…

Just over a month until the season starts

Even though no signs of the summer can be seen in Húsavik these days there’s just over a month until the first whale watching trip of the year is scheduled. North Sailing plans to kick off the season exceptionally early this year or on the 15th of april. Of course this will be subject to weather conditions…

Scientific researches in Skjálfandi Bay

At the Husavik Research center Dr. Marianne Rasmussen and Ph.D student Edda Elísabet Magnúsdóttir have been working on a new reasearch on whales in Skjálfandi Bay. This reasearch is unique because they use technology that has never before been used in cold waters. This technology is called EAR (Ecological Acoustic Recorder) and has been developed…

Statement regarding whaling decision around Iceland

In reaction to Iceland´s Minister for Fisheries decision concerning commercial whaling, North Sailing and the Húsavík Whale Museum would like to state the following: "North Sailing and the Húsavík Whale Museum regret and  criticize the decision of Iceland’s Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture to permit large scale whaling during the next five years a total…

North Sailing´s tv channel

In summer 2008 we had a team visiting from Realnature.tv from Kiel, Germany and in cooperation with our guide, Martin Varga, they documented whale watching with North Sailing as well as other subjects. The dialogs are in German but the clips speak for themselves. 🙂 The result can be seen on North Sailing´s realnature.tv channel. North Sailing…