After a cold June the weather is improving in north Iceland. There are currently prime conditions for whale watching in the fjord Eyjafjördur where an unusually high number of whales have been spotted lately: humpbacks, minke whales, dolphins and porpoises.
Whale watching in Iceland. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
“It has gone incredibly well so far this summer. The whales have swum far into Eyjafjördur and their numbers are unusually high,” commented Árni Halldórsson to Morgunbladid.
He is the co-owner of the whale watching company Níels Jónsson, which offers whale watching trips from an eponymous oak boat from the village of Hauganes, located on the banks by the mid-fjord.
Halldórsson recollects than when he started offering whale watching tours in 1993 there weren’t many humpbacks in Eyjafjördur. Currently there are eight to ten humpbacks in the fjord.
“On almost all of our tours we have sailed into the fjord,” he added of their location. Whales are usually spotted after sailing only ten or 15 minutes, Halldórsson said.
The north Iceland tourist industry is coming alive after the cold spell and he usually takes tourists on one to three whale watching tours per day.
Níels Jónsson EA is a boat with two purposes: in the summer it serves as a whale watching boat while in the winter it is used for fishing. Hauganes is also home to fish processing company Ektafiskur, which specializes in salted cod, or bacalao.
Hauganes, the neighboring village Árskógssandur and the island of Hrísey, which can be reached by ferry from Árskógssandur, are also frequented by gourmet tourists eager to taste the local bacalao, blue mussels and the beer Kaldi.
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