Whales of the Arctic: Narwhal, Beluga, Bowhead and Humpback

The whales the Victorians nearly finished and the humpbacks that are almost a certainty. Where they are, month by month, and how a ship that does not chase them finds them.

The Arctic is the last place on earth where you can see the whales the Victorians nearly finished: the bowhead that lives two centuries, the narwhal with the tusk, the beluga in its hundreds in a shallow bay. It is also, off Iceland and in Disko Bay, one of the most reliable humpback coasts anywhere. This is where the whales are, month by month, and how to see them from a ship that is not built to chase them.

In short

Whales are the Arctic’s most dependable large animal and the least advertised. Humpbacks in Disko Bay and off Húsavík are almost a certainty in summer. Narwhal, beluga and bowhead are the prizes of the High Arctic, found by the bridge rather than the brochure.

The three that belong to the ice

Bowhead

The only baleen whale that lives in the Arctic year round, under the ice, with a head a third of its body built to break through it. Bowheads live more than 200 years; stone harpoon heads of the 1800s have been found in whales killed in the 1990s. Hunted almost to extinction from Spitsbergen in the 1600s, they are back along the ice edge north of Svalbard in small numbers and seen from Le Commandant Charcot on the way to the Pole, and in larger numbers in Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound in August, where the Canadian and West Greenland population now numbers several thousand.

Narwhal

The unicorn, a tusk that is a tooth, up to three metres long, on an animal of five. Most of the world’s narwhal summer in the Canadian Arctic, in the sounds and inlets of Baffin Island and Lancaster Sound, and the Northwest Passage voyages in August pass through them. They are shy, they surface quietly, and they are seen from the ship in calm water more often than from the Zodiacs. A pod in Eclipse Sound off Pond Inlet or in the inlets of Somerset Island is the sighting the expedition team hopes for most.

Beluga

White, toothed, talkative, in pods of dozens along the glacier fronts of Svalbard and Greenland and in the hundreds in the river mouths of the Canadian islands in July and August, where they come to moult in the shallows. Cunningham Inlet on Somerset Island holds one of the largest summer gatherings in the Arctic. In Svalbard they are seen from the Zodiacs along the ice fronts of Liefdefjorden and Hornsund, and from the ship almost anywhere.

Wall of blue-tinged icebergs in soft pink evening light at the mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord, West Greenland, on a Swan Hellenic SH Vega expedition cruise

Tall sheer-sided iceberg rising above the ice-filled Ilulissat Icefjord beyond dark shoreline rocks, West Greenland, on a Swan Hellenic SH Vega expedition cruise

View from dark shoreline rocks across a vast field of white icebergs filling the Ilulissat Icefjord, West Greenland, on a Swan Hellenic SH Vega expedition cruise

The summer visitors

Humpback

The whale of West Greenland and Iceland: feeding in Disko Bay among the icebergs from June to September, often within sight of Ilulissat, and off Húsavík and Grundarfjörður all summer, where bubble-net feeding is seen most years. The Labrador coast in September has them too, and the Strait of Belle Isle. Odds: almost certain on any West Greenland or Iceland voyage.

Blue whale

The largest animal that has ever lived, seen off Svalbard in increasing numbers since the 2000s along the shelf edge west of Spitsbergen, and off Húsavík in June and July. A blow ten metres high, a back that goes on, and a sighting that stops a ship.

Fin, minke and orca

Fin whales along the Svalbard shelf and in the Denmark Strait, minke whales everywhere the water is open, and orcas off Iceland and in the Greenland Sea following the herring. The sea days on the crossings to Greenland and the sail north from Reykjavík are whale days, if you are on deck.

Humpback whale surfacing in front of a towering white iceberg off Ilulissat, Disko Bay, West Greenland, seen from a Swan Hellenic SH Vega expedition cruise

Humpback whale surfacing in a cloud of spray in front of an iceberg, photographed on a PONANT Northwest Passage expedition cruise from Kangerlussuaq to Nome

Humpback whale blowing a tall column of spray in front of a blue iceberg wall off Ilulissat, West Greenland, on a PONANT Greenland expedition cruise

Where and when, at a glance

Svalbard, June to August: beluga at the glacier fronts, fin and blue whales along the shelf edge west of Spitsbergen, bowhead at the ice edge in the north.
Disko Bay, June to September: humpbacks among the icebergs, almost daily.
Iceland, June to September: humpbacks, minkes and blue whales off Húsavík, orcas off Snæfellsnes and in the Denmark Strait.
The Canadian Arctic, August: narwhal in Eclipse Sound and the inlets of the Passage, beluga in the river mouths, bowhead in Lancaster Sound.
East Greenland, August and September: narwhal in the inner fjords of Scoresby Sund in a quiet year, orcas and fin whales in the Denmark Strait.
The Pole voyages: bowhead and beluga along the ice edge north of Svalbard, on the way in and out.

How whales are found

By the bridge. The officers and the expedition team watch the water through every hour of the day, and a blow seen from the bridge wing goes to the tannoy in seconds. Expedition ships do not chase whales and the rules of every line we sell keep them at a distance; what they do is slow, turn and wait, and a humpback that is curious comes to the ship. The best whale days are the calm ones, when a blow carries a kilometre and the flukes show against flat water, and the best hours are early morning and late evening when the light is low and the sea is still.

Humpback whale surfacing with a tall plume of blow spray in Disko Bay, West Greenland, photographed on a PONANT Greenland expedition cruise

Seeing them well

Be on deck. Whales are seen by the people outside. The bridge wings and the bow are the places; a sea day inside the ship is a sea day without whales.
Binoculars and a medium lens. A 70 to 200 millimetre lens catches a fluke; the 400 you brought for bears is too long on a moving deck.
Learn the blows. Tall and straight is a fin or a blue, bushy is a humpback, low and quick is a minke. The naturalists teach it in the first lecture.
The crossings count. The night and the day across the Denmark Strait, which guests dread, are the richest whale waters of the voyage.

Whale tail fluke lifting above the water during a day at sea off the Labrador coast on a Swan Hellenic expedition cruise

Questions we are asked about whales

Which Arctic voyage is best for whales?

Disko Bay in summer and Iceland in July and August for humpbacks, with near certainty. The Northwest Passage in August for narwhal and beluga, with good odds and no promises.

Can we see narwhal from a ship?

Yes, in the Canadian Arctic in August, from the ship in calm water. It is a quiet, grey surfacing rather than a breach, and the tusk shows rarely. The sighting is real and it is rare; we never promise it.

Do the ships go whale watching?

Not in the tourist-boat sense. Expedition ships keep the distance the regulations and their own rules set, slow and wait, and let the whales decide. A curious humpback beside a stopped ship is the better encounter.

Is there whale watching in Longyearbyen or Reykjavík before the voyage?

Reykjavík, Húsavík and Akureyri all run boat trips from the harbour. Longyearbyen does not. We build a Húsavík day into Iceland itineraries when the dates allow.

Read the Arctic’s land mammals for the animals of the shore, or when to go for the month.

Whales of the Arctic: Narwhal, Beluga, Bowhead, Humpback and Blue