What Else You Might See Out There

The short version: humpback whales follow the same herring as the orcas and are often the commoner sighting of the two. Minke whales and fin whales also turn up, and further out some trips have logged sperm whales. What you will not see is a polar bear: there are no wild polar bears in Tromsø or anywhere on mainland Norway.

OrcaThe reason most people book

HumpbackOften the commoner sighting

MinkeTurns up along this coast

Fin whaleTurns up along this coast

Sperm whaleLogged on some trips, further out

Polar bearNone on mainland Norway

Humpbacks

They eat the same herring, they winter in the same fjords, and on a great many days they are what the boat finds first. If you have come specifically for orcas this can feel like a consolation for about ninety seconds, until a humpback surfaces close enough that you hear the blow before you see it. They are enormous and unhurried and the whole boat goes quiet.

Minke and fin whales

Both turn up along this coast in winter. Minkes are small, fast and easy to miss if you are looking for something dramatic; fin whales are the opposite and hard to mistake for anything else. Neither is the animal anyone books for and both are a good reason to keep watching the water when nothing is being announced.

Sperm whales

Further out, some trips have logged them. One reviewer on the high-speed catamaran saw one; another saw sperm whales on two separate trips. That is the honest scale of the claim — it happens, it is not the plan, and no operator sells the day on it. The catamaran ranges furthest of the fleet on a long day, which is part of why those reports come from that boat; the details are on the catamaran review.

There are no polar bears here

This question comes up constantly and the answer is a flat no. There are no wild polar bears in Tromsø or anywhere on mainland Norway. They live on Svalbard, which is a flight away and a completely different trip. Tromsø’s polar-bear associations are historical — the old hunting fleet sailed from here — and museum-based. Anybody offering you a polar bear on a day trip from Tromsø is offering you something that does not exist.

Insider tip

The best watching I have done on these trips was with the engine off and nothing announced. Scan the water in a slow sweep rather than staring at wherever the last thing surfaced. A blow hangs in cold air for several seconds, which is much easier to spot than a back.

What the orcas are actually doing

Carousel feeding, and it is the reason the winter gathering exists at all. A group works together to herd herring into a tight ball below the surface, stuns them with underwater tail-slaps, and then eats them one at a time. From a low boat you can sometimes see the fish flashing at the surface before you see a whale. It is coordinated hunting by animals that have no natural predator of their own, which is a strange thing to be watching from a rubber boat in the dark — more on that on are orcas dangerous.

And above the water

The aurora, more often than people expect, because the northern lights season overlaps the whale season almost exactly. A twelve-hour Skjervøy day can start and finish under it. That overlap is set out honestly, including what it does not promise, on northern lights and whales.

How much of this you actually get

Depends entirely on the day, and nobody is in charge of it. The population of orcas in Norwegian waters is large — the figures are on how many orcas there are in Norway — and a large population is still not a whale in front of your boat. What a good trip gives you is hours in the right water with people who know what they are looking at.

The trip with the guides people talk about

Seven to nine hours on a hybrid-electric catamaran with heated saloons, panoramic windows, Wi-Fi and lunch included, running on battery around the whales so you can actually hear a blow. Reviewers name the guides as the strength of it — one described their enthusiasm as contagious. 4.5 from 6,653 reviews at the time of writing, the largest sample of the six.

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Frequently asked questions

Are there polar bears in Tromsø?

No. There are no wild polar bears in Tromsø or anywhere on mainland Norway; they live on Svalbard, which is a separate flight and a separate trip. The town’s polar-bear associations come from the old hunting fleet and from its museums. What you can realistically see on the water is set out on is it worth it.

What whales can you see in Tromsø besides orcas?

Humpbacks follow the same herring and are often the commoner sighting of the two. Minke whales and fin whales also turn up along this coast, and further out some trips have logged sperm whales. Which boat ranges furthest is part of the choice on RIB versus big boat.

How do orcas hunt herring in Norway?

By carousel feeding. A group works together to herd herring into a tight ball below the surface, stuns them with underwater tail-slaps, then eats them one at a time. It is the behaviour the whole winter season is built around, and watching it is the point of the trip — more on where it happens.