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Boaters capture ‘magical’ moment when trio of sea creatures appear in Iceland. See them

A trio of sea creatures were spotted swimming together in Iceland, according to witnesses.
A trio of sea creatures were spotted swimming together in Iceland, according to witnesses. Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

A boat of tourists left Reykjavik, Iceland recently in hopes of catching a glimpse of whales.

About an hour into their “very sunny” trip, three blows of water appeared, Elding Whale Watch Reykjavik naturalist Pedro Teixeira wrote in a blog post on Oct. 30.

“We got a little closer and deduced that these blows belonged to 3 different humpback whales!” Teixeira wrote in the post. “They were all (traveling) together and would come up in unison through out the tour, often coming very close to the boat.”

Photos show the huge sea creatures side by side, diving through the water and blowing through their blow holes.

Teixeira said the whales were lunge-feeding — which is when whales collect a large amount of prey and water in their mouths and then release water through their “closed-mouth filtration” — so the boaters were able to see their faces.

“What a magical morning!” Teixeira wrote.

Iceland is home to the largest population of humpbacks in the world, with approximately 15,000 of the creatures living, eating and migrating in the region, according to Arctic Adventures. They are the most common species of whale spotted on whale watching tours in the country.

The best time to see the creatures is during their feeding season from May to September, the agency said.

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This story was originally published October 31, 2023 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Boaters capture ‘magical’ moment when trio of sea creatures appear in Iceland. See them."

Moira Ritter
mcclatchy-newsroom
Moira Ritter covers real-time news for McClatchy. She is a graduate of Georgetown University where she studied government, journalism and German. Previously, she reported for CNN Business.
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