from Húsavík.

The Church "Húsavíkurkirkja" in Húsavík township (pop. over 2500) was consecrated 1907, build of wooden from Norway and has always been one of the towns most excellence and well known by tourists. Gardar Svavarsson, the second Norseman to visit Iceland, is said to have wintered in Húsavík and been the first to have built there a house, hence the name. Geothermal heat there nearby is used to heating locally. Motor-road is to the top of "Húsavíkurfjall" 417m and there are splendid view and there are also view-dial. Today is "Húsavík" well known for the pioneering Whale Watching tours and the recently opened Whale-Museum.

 

In Húsavík have the main pioneer of the Whale Watching headquarters. This sailing are still raising all over the country and very popular by travellers. Eyjafjordur has also Whale Whatching places s.s. Hauganes and Dalvík.

 

Whales have mammary glands with which they feed their young. A Southern Right whale calf can drink up to 200 litres of milk every day.

Whales, like humans, have a four-chambered heart.

Whales, the largest animals on earth, belong to a family of mammals known as cetaceans. Unlike fish, whales are warm-blooded, breathe air and give birth to live young. Scientists believe that they evolved from land mammals with four legs, though they are now supremely adapted to underwater life. They have excellent hearing and are two to three times more efficient than land mammals at using oxygen in inhaled air. Whales have collapsible rib cages which assist them with deep diving, and they have layers of insulating fat, called blubber, to protect them from the cold.

Whales are difficult creatures to study because they are long-lived, reproduce slowly and most are highly migratory. Gray whales, for example, travelling about 20,000 kilometers annually. Most whales live to approximately 40 years of age, though others, such as the Fin, can live to be 90. Bowhead whales may be especially long-lived. In 1993, a large ale killed by the Alaskan Inuit was found to have been carrying in its flesh a stone harpoon point. Since this kind of harpoon is not known to have been in use after 1900, it suggests that some individual Bowhead whales may live up to 100 years of age.

Since it is very difficult to count whales accurately and population changes occur very slowly, it is impossible to tell if a population is growing or shrinking in the course of a few years' study. In fact, the size of some populations of whales is known no more accurately than plus or minus 50 percent.

Whale watching has become a popular pastime in our country,- the unique behaviors and characteristics exhibited by whales make them fascinating to observe in the wild.