by Flordespina Dodds

The more time the team spends in Iceland the more we can recognize some of the humpback whales year to year. Humpback whales all have unique black and white markings on their flukes (bottom of the tail), like fingerprints. This means that when we take pictures of their fluke, we can identify them to the individual. Unfortunately, some whales have very “average” flukes with a pattern that doesn’t stand out, so it is hard to remember those individuals. On the other hand, some whales have unique flukes that we can recognize immediately. Some of these more unique whales have been seen across a few years, which makes it feel like seeing an old friend when you see them again. It is nice to know that some of the whales we have seen before have survived the winter, and have chosen to come back to the same area.

Our team stays in a small town called Drangsnes along Steingrímsfjörður to collect data for our Scars from Above project. The goal is to collect aerial images of humpback whales to look at entanglement scars as well as measuring their length and widths for age and health estimates. We are then comparing the entanglement scars we see from the drone to pictures taken from boats (the standard method). Judith Scott our good friend and collaborator takes photos of the whales on her boat trips and keeps her own catalougue of the humpback whales that she encounters. Judith is the whale watching guide for Láki tours from Hólmavík, and one of the biggest whale nerds we know. Sometimes when the weather isn’t good enough to fly the drone (windy, rainy) we will join Judith on her Láki Tours trips in Steingrímsfjörður to collect photos of the whales. We also sometimes drive west to Ísafjarðardjúp a large fjord system to fly our drone over the whales there as well.

Here I will talk about just a few of the team’s favourite whales that we have seen this year. You will see each of the whales meno#, this is their number in our fluke catalogue, and their menoa#, which is their number in our aerial catalogue.

Angel is a special whale in Steingrímsfjörður. Angel’s name comes from the very beautiful pattern on its tail that looks like angel wings in the middle of its fluke. Judith first saw Angel in 2022, the same year we first saw Angel in August. We then saw this whale again in June 2023, and this year in July and August. On one trip this year in mid-July, we saw a few humpbacks, including Angel. Angel came very close to the boat a couple of times; it was so humbling to be so close to Angel and to be able to hear them breath in and out. It was a special moment. When we fly the drone, we see the backs of the whales first and then if we are lucky and they lift their tails for a dive we get to see their fluke. Angel has a nice distinct mark on the top side of their tail that we can see very clearly as the drone pilot, yet another reason why Angel makes a very nice whale to fly the drone over. 

Vampire is another special whale. Named for two white spots in the black portion of their fluke, which looks like the teeth marks a vampire might leave behind. Sometimes you need some creativity when naming the whales based on their fluke patterns! We have seen Vampire in 2022, 2023, and this year, always in Steingrímsfjörður. In fact, Judith has been the whale watching guide here since 2017 and she has seen Vampire every year since, Vampire is the only whale she has seen every year she has been here! Vampire must love Steingrímsfjörður. One of the team’s special memories of Vampire is from back in June 2023. Our cabin in Drangsnes looks out over the sea and Grímsey Island, a small island covered in seasonal marine birds (puffins, razorbills, kittiwakes, etc) about 1500m off the coast. Vampire spent about a week hanging out by the island, among all the birds and seaweed. Whales are not often seen between the coast and the Island but Vampire sure was enjoying the aera. It’s nice to know Vampire likes to return year after year and we hope to see them next year.

Chopped Off has an unfortunate name but it really has stuck. Looking at their fluke you can see where the name came from. At some point in their life, they must have had an accident. It could have been a boat strike or a severe entanglement where Chopped Off lost the end of its fluke, though survived and fortunately now lives on. We have only ever seen this whale in Ísafjarðardjúp, a very large fjord system which seems to be a good area for humpbacks. We often see large gatherings of 20-30 humpback whales throughout the fjord system. 

We first saw Chopped Off in 2021 and then in 2023 and again this year. However, we know that this whale was also seen in 2022 (not by us). In 2023 we worked with a Sailing boat called Arvik: they provide a platform for research groups to conduct their projects at sea. We joined Arvik for a few weeks in July and August 2023 in Ísafjarðardjúp. While on board we collected aerial images of many humpback whales, one of which was Chopped Off. We showed the Arvik team this whale because it is so unique and to our surprise, they said they knew this whale and that it was their favourite humpback. Arvik had spent some time in Ísafjarðardjúp in 2022 before we knew them, and they had seen Chopped Off then! Nice to know that Chopped Off consistently likes to come to Ísafjarðardjúp.

This season, one of our most unique experiences with a whale has been with Banana. On the 4^th of August the team drove to Ísafjarðardjúp to look for whales on a what was supposed to be a good weather day. There were whales but it was too windy to drone in the end. So instead, we decided to stop at some geothermal hot pots on the way back to Drangsnes. These hotpots are down at the end of one of the fjords which has a bridge at the opening (Mjóifjörður). The team assured Katie (one of our new team members) that you never see whales in this fjord because of the bridge.  Once in the hot pot, what happens? A whale starts breaching (jumping) repeatedly. We drove around the fjord to see it closer, and the whale came within 100m of the shore. We got out the camera and got some ID photos. The whale was named Banana because it has a banana shape on its fluke and… the team was eating banana bread while watching the whale.

On august 7^th the team returned to Ísafjarðardjúp to drone the whales (on an actually good weather day) and they got an aerial image of Banana on the way back to Drangsnes again in Mjóifjörður. On August 12^th the team returned once again to drone over the whales in Ísafjarðardjúp and stopped again at the hot pots on the way back. This time Banana was still in Mjóifjörður and very near the hot pots, so some of the team braved the cold Icelandic sea and swam with Banana (100m at the closest). It was a magical experience! The team last saw Banana again on the 29^th of August. Driving once again to find the whales in Ísafjarðardjúp, the team was just crossing the bridge at the mouth of banana’s Fjord (Mjóifjörður) and saw a blow. The team pulled over and got the drone up to get another aerial image of Banana. Then Banana breached twice which was amazing to watch. It is impossible to know if Banana is the only whale willing to go under the bridge, or if Banana has left Mjóifjörður between the times we visited. Alas, we hope Banana is enjoying their time in Mjóifjörður.

The last whale on our list is Mufasa. For the Whale Wise team Mufasa has been a special whale for a while. Back in 2021 the team was out on Skjálfandi Bay near Húsavík in a 5m boat collecting aerial images and blow samples for our projects at the time. It had been a long and early morning and just before giving up for the day and returning to the harbour, the team spotted one last whale. They approached slowly and got the equipment ready. But before they knew it the whale had approached the boat and was very curious, circling the boat and spy hopping (lifting its head out of the water). It was the most spiritual experience. The whale had loads of scars all over its body and so was initially named Scar, but because the whale had really been the hero of the day it was renamed Mufasa. Fast forward to 2024 in Steingrímsfjörður, the team finally gets a good weather day in August and gets the drone up in the air. They fly the drone over some familiar whales: Angel and Vampire and then one of the drone pilots says, “goodness this is a super scarred up whale!”. Once back in the cabin the team found that the fluke in the drone video matched Mufasa. So, we got to see Mufasa again after 3 years!  

Judith calls this whale Scarface, and she saw them for the first time in 2019. This whale stayed in Steingrímsfjörður for a long time that summer. She remembers one amazing trip with Scarface in 2019 where it breached over and over! She had not seen this whale since 2019 so it was a nice surprise to have Scarface back this year.

The team is still seeing Mufasa in Steingrímsfjörður this year and hopes that we will continue to do so for many years to come.