Of the three high Arctic whales, the Beluga is by far the easiest to see in Spitsbergen waters. The other two, the Bowhead Whale and Narwhal, are much rarer and far more difficult to find. It’s not that we see Beluga’s on every trip, but it is a regular sight on our trips. And if you see them, it’s usually a reasonably large group. 

I always love seeing Belugas, but somehow it’s always disappointing what we actually see. Usually, it’s just a small off-white back popping out of the water and disappearing again. This trip we got lucky. During our zodiac cruise in Hornsund, we found a small group near the glacier front. We quickly switched off our zodiac engine and waited for what was to happen. Now the whales didn’t seem to mind our zodiacs anymore, and we had several Beluga’s swim right between our zodiacs. From the boats, we had a super look at them and were able to take some good pictures.