2010-07-11- Fin whale
Fin whale in Vestfjorden !
Today one of the true giants of the sea visited us in Vestfjorden and with a full boat we could enjoy the company of the second largest species that have ever lived on our planet - a fin whale!
On our way out to the open fjord we passed a beautiful fishing boat that was just about to take in the nets and saw lots of herring gulls had gathered around it looking for food. Among the gulls we discovered one of the most rare of the large sea-bird species that can be found in the Lofoten area - the Great Skua! which is a large dark-brown bird with white markings on their wings that breed far out at sea. Like all skuas, they specialise in stealing the food from other sea-birds. A little bit further out the smallest of all the skuas passed over the boat: the long-tailed skua, which is a much more slender and elegant skua with an exceptionally long tail. Before we reached the more deep water we could also see a gannet flying past our boat and several puffins and black guillemots were swiming around in the area searching for food.
Shortly after we had reached deeper water and made our first stop to look for any signs of whales in the area, a harbour porpoise came up close to the boat - a species that is normally very shy and wary of boats. We could see it surface 3-4 times before it decided to move on - a small whale that is normally very difficult to spot unless the sea is completely flat so we were lucky to see it.
After having cruised along the fjord for only another 15 minutes it happened ! We heard the blow of a large baleen whale that came up to the surface next to the boat and could just see the side of the body and the dorsal fin before it dived again. Having seen it only briefly, we first believed it was an adult minke whale, which is a species that we have encountered several other times in the fjord, but when it came up again, and we could get a closer look, we knew that we were lucky enough to experience one of the rare encounters with a fin whale!
After having seen the fin whale come up to the surface for 5-6 times we left our unexpected visitor in the fjord for her/himself and returned back to Henningsvær with big smiles on our faces and with an experience that I think none of us will ever forget as long as we live.
We wish to thank our visitors from today for a fantastic trip, and we would like to welcome all of you to visit us at Ocean Sounds Science Center and experience the life in the sea with us, or to come in to us and learn more about the marine wildlife in one of our popular lectures about the wildlife of Lofoten which is given daily by a marine biologist.
Welcome to Henningsvær!
