Reykjavik Whale and Puffin Watching Rib Boat Tour

Faxaflói Bay hosts twenty-three cetacean species across 400 square kilometres of sub-Arctic water, and the rigid inflatable boat became Iceland's fastest wildlife-viewing platform when Sea Trips launched its first RIB fleet in 2009. The vessels cut travel time to feeding grounds from ninety minutes to twelve, placing passengers alongside minke whales, white-beaked dolphins, and harbour porpoises before conventional boats leave Reykjavik's Old Harbour breakwater. That harbour — Gamla Höfnin — functioned as Iceland's primary cargo port until containerization moved freight operations to Sundahöfn in 1968. The decommissioned piers now host Iceland's densest concentration of marine tour operators, and the Reykjavik whale and puffin watching RIB boat tour departs from Pier 9, where Maritime Museum exhibits trace Icelandic whaling history from open-boat harpoon hunts through the 1989 commercial ban. The museum's admission is bundled with every RIB departure, offering pre-tour context on baleen filter-feeding and toothed whale echolocation. Puffin viewing concentrates around Lundey and Akurey, two basalt islets three kilometres offshore where Atlantic puffins nest in burrow colonies numbering 30,000 breeding pairs. The birds arrive in April and depart by mid-August, making May through July optimal months for sightings. Humpback whale populations peak between late June and September, when capelin and herring shoals migrate through the bay. Minke whales feed year-round but surface more frequently in calm water, and captains adjust routes based on daily marine mammal reports radioed from fishing vessels and coastal observation posts. The RIB configuration seats twelve passengers on jockey-style benches, and operators issue insulated flotation suits rated to two hours in four-degree water. Twin 250-horsepower outboards push the hull to 35 knots, though captains rarely exceed 20 near cetaceans to comply with Iceland's 50-metre approach regulation. The low freeboard and open deck eliminate glass glare, and the boat's manoeuvrability permits 360-degree positioning when whales surface. Passenger photography captures dorsal fin identification marks that marine biologists catalog through Húsavík's research institute, contributing to North Atlantic population studies underway since 1995.