Long finned pilot whales - Grindhvalur

On the 28th July I was guiding a whale watching tour and heard of a large pod of Long-Finned Pilot whales that were getting alarmingly close to land. This was quite a surprise to us as the last time this happen was in Þorlákshöfn in 1986 where 100 Pilot whales were found dead on the beach as residents woke up and in Njarðvík in 1957 where 100 pilot whales were found close to the harbour and then pushed onto the beaches to utilize and also once in 1875 as far as we know so todays experience was one to go down in Elding history. Once we got there after about 2 hours sailing, and a quick stop with a Minke Whale, we noticed how close the 200 or so pilot whales were actually to the coast. We couldn´t get in between them and land to push them out but soon another smaller boat came that was able to scare them away from land and then we could get in between to help push them further into the bay into deeper waters were they are more comfortable. The whales were obviously stressed but we had no choice, as it would benefit them in the long run. After a while of pushing these whales further out we felt comfortable that they were a safe distance from land and so we left. The passengers had a rare experience on this tour but how many people can say that they have helped save 200 Pilot Whales on our whale watching tours.