Elding Adventure at Sea

WHALE WATCHING FROM REYKJAVÍK ICELAND - THIS IS ELDING!

ELDING WHALE WATCHING – DECADES OF EXPERIENCE AND YEAR-ROUND TOURS

Elding Whale Watching offers the most talked-about whale watching and sea adventure tours in Iceland. With decades of experience, we provide responsible whale watching tours, year round. Our other tours include incentive and exclusive tours, and the ferry to Viðey Island.

We also have seasonal tours. In summer we offer puffin watching and sea angling, and in winter our tours include Northern Lights Cruises and Imagine Peace Tours.

REYKJAVIK'S ORIGINAL WHALE WATCHING OPERATOR

We are proud to be the original whale watching operator in Reykjavík. Elding is a family owned company that began with a personal interest in wildlife, boats and people. Whale watching tours were the perfect way to unite these interests while giving locals and tourists the chance to experience Iceland’s marine life.

We started in 2000, and over the years our products and services have developed a great deal; from small-scale seasonal tours to year-round products, and whale watching is now one of the top three tourist activities in Iceland.

EXPERIENCE AND ENTHUSIASM AT ELDING

We believe in using our experience and enthusiasm to make the best tours available. We truly put great care into the business, and whale watching has become a lifestyle for us. As our tours are authentic wildlife tours and each one is unique.

RESPONSIBLE WHALE WATCHING

We follow IceWhale’s codes of conduct for responsible whale watching as well as following our own stricter guidelines. We take part in international cooperation on the future of whale watching, e.g. IWC and Planet Whale. To advance our knowledge we participate and support marine biologists research on wildlife in our area. Elding also is the first and only environmentally certified whale watching company in Iceland.

Killer Whales in Reykjavík Iceland 13.3.17 - Elding Adventure at Sea

From our whale diary:

Report from Eldey: We knew from the morning that our ride was going to be cold and bumpy, but we were prepared ! We put everyone in full-body suits to protect from the cold, and we proposed sea-sickness to anyone willing to be on the safe side. What we were not prepared for, though, was how incredible this tour was going to be ! We went straightforward to the area where we saw the feeding dolphins earlier in the morning, but there was no cetaceans there. Still, we caught sight of numerous splashes and when coming closer we could see hundreds of northern gannets diving in the water, hunting fishes. We stayed a little bit to enjoy from very close their aerial displays, until our first mate Otto spotted a large blow in the distance, that lead us to a humpback whale, the second of the year ! It was at first tricky to get closer since it was taking dives that lasted for what felt like an eternity and only surfacing once before diving down again. Our fish finder indicated there was fish below us close to the bottom, so we assumed this individual as busy feeding under the water. We remained patient and attentive, until we could have close encounter right in front of the boat ! After that the whale was on the move, surfacing quicker and more often. We eventually left this humpback and started to go back home because time was due. Then a miraculous even happened: as were closing in toward Reykjavik, we hit the jackpot and 5 KILLER WHALES (the firsts of 2017) surfaced next to us and followed us for more than 10 minutes ! There was 3 males with an impressively tall dorsal fin and 2 splendid manners. They were surfacing nicely and slowly, allowing the capture of breathtaking pictures. On some occasions they came less than 20 m from the boat and went under the boat, and also did a little bit of tail-slapping for our greatest joy. It was a moment of sheer excitement and pure bliss, with a hysterical crew and cheerful passengers ! The orcas disappeared as we neared the lighthouse Grótta, and the trip ended with everyone head over heels.

Videos by Megan Whittaker and Þorleifur Ottó Jóhannsson