Last Icelandic Blog -Husavik Fishing Village, Puffins, and Horses

This young lad was watching the fishing boats arrive and chewing on what looked to be a pickle.

The private boats left the harbor at midnight and returned between 2 and 3 pm.  Their catch had to be weighed before 5 pm.   Many of the boats looked to be well used wooden hull boats.  Some were more modern fiberglass models.  Most were about 35 feet long and had only one fisherman on board.  The older boats had a captain and a mate.

The most valuable fish is haddock, followed by cod, and then snapper. Every skipper came in with several boxes of fish.  There are shops in town that hire folks to bait the fishing lines with herring. The fisherman then collect the boxes of baited lines and hopes he comes in with boxes of fish.

A typical Icelandic lass checking out the day's catch.

Besides the fishing boats there were wooden sail boats and schooners in the harbor. Quite a few whale watching tours leave from Husavik.  Humpbacks and Minke Whales are common. Occasionally people see Blue Whales

Our guides gave us a choice of taking more puffin pictures or fish pictures.  Three of us headed out to shoot puffin pictures.

Puffins only have their colorful beaks during the mating season.  There as between 8 and 10 million puffins on Iceland. The puffins spend the winter on the seas. At this time their beaks are grey.

The puffins were flying very fast this day.  It was a challenge to capture a good picture.

Lighthouse on a basalt peninsula.  Wish the lighthouse was a little prettier than cigarette cartoon standing on end. 

An Arctic Tern feeding it's chick.  This chick looks to be well fed. The adult terns would dive bomb you if you walked too close to a nest.  Some times they would drop a little present.

Icelandic horses crossing a stream. There were about 40 horses in this herd.  Wish I could have gotten a picture with better separation between the horses.

These horses are beautiful.

That's all for Iceland.  I enjoyed my photo tour here.  Our tour leaders were fantastic.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures.