Orca! It happened!

The entire time I have been in Iceland I have held out hope that we would get a chance to see Killer Whales, on every trip we all held a slight hope that in our peripheral vision we would see a large, black, triangular dorsal fin rise out of the water!

And this week my friend Charla came to visit, (we lived together in Húsavík) and on the one trip she decided to join me on the boat....

OORRRCCAAAAAA! (Orcinus orca)

We were downstairs as the boat was heading back to harbour, I was just doing a data sheet for the dolphins we had seen earlier when the guide announced "There is a large black fin at 10 o'clock". I grabbed my coat and camera and ran upstairs, and after a minute or two it appeared! A lone male killer whale all in its beauty and splendour!

The dorsal fin can tell us the sex and age of an orca

The tall, triangular shape tells us he is a male. A females would be shorter and look more like a minke whales dorsal.

The wave/bump in the middle of the dorsal tells us this guy is older as this feature only appears after 16 years. 

It is actually very unusual to see a lone orca, as they normally travel in pods and have extremely strong bonds in those pods. We have a few theories as to to why:
He had gotten ill and so the pod may have kicked him out as he was a burden.
He is a transient killer whale, these are less inclined to travel in pods and will hunt for mammals alone sometimes.
I believe that this was a scout who was checking out the food content of the bay, we can hope that he got a good impression and brings the whole family!

Thanks for reading!