Davy Jones II: A local celebrity
- Elding's research team
- Oct 3
- 6 min read
Davy Jones II was first sighted in Iceland the 9th of July 2020. A captain named him like this and when we tried to put him in our catalogue, we realised that there was another Davy Jones but we were already so used to this name so we decided to go for Davy Jones II. We are not sure what is his gender, however after some videos we tend to think it’s a male but a good picture of the underside of the tail would be necessary to confirm it.
Davy is easily recognisable by a large notch on his dorsal fin, the orca rakes on the right side of the fluke, and the seagull like mark just under.
This particular individual showed very interesting behaviour many times, often active and curious towards the boats.
Mainly known by the crew, passengers have also commented on Google or Tripadvisor about our national treasure:
“We went a little further out and were blessed with a very up close and personal meeting with Dave Jones 2nd, a beautiful humpback whale.”
“We were lucky enough to see a Minke whale as well as humpbacks including Davy Jones II. Lots of bird life too. My 8 year old son really enjoyed himself…. One of the highlights of his trip ! ”
« Truly wonderful and a unique experience, we were lucky enough to see Dolphins and a particularly friendly (And known - Davy Jones II) humpback whale put on quite the show for us. Breaching, Fin and Pec slaps and some dives »
The best way to describe Davy Jones is to interview the ones who met him, Elding’s guides and captains.
“Once again however, the humpback whale Davy Jones II stole the show today. He approached our vessel multiple times and right as we thought we had seen it all, he breached no less than 5 times in a big semi-circle around us! This was an incredible way to end our afternoon at sea and just as we decided to return to port, he treated us to a pec slap as if he was waving us goodbye.”
Milan Vansteelandt
“Once again, we didn´t have to travel far to find where the humpbacks were. The first one we stopped to watch was Davy Jones II! They were behaving quite calm and even surfaced really really close to us a few times. This is very typical of this individual. They then started to act very strange and went into even shallower waters close to land. It started to sometimes roll or lift only one part of the body out the water but not always breathing first. It was quite unusual. Our hypothesis was that it was potentially scratching itself on the rocks. Humpbacks have been seen to do this before in Australia as a way to remove dead skin or parasites.”
Rob Hyman
“The moment you spot Davy Jones II’s forked dorsal fin, you already know it’s going to be a good day. My favourite encounter with him was during a midnight tour, with no other boats around and a beautiful sunset as the backdrop. Davy was hanging out with some dolphins, and we were floating nearby with our engines off, just soaking it all in. True to form, Davy’s curiosity got the better of him. He left his dolphin friends behind and swam straight to our RIB. He stopped about a meter from our port side, and then slowly drifted closer… and closer… until he gave the boat a little nudge with his rostrum, like a gentle kiss. But that was just the teaser. After that, he swam under us, came up on the other side, and flung one pectoral fin into the air. As if that wasn’t enough, he spy-hopped a few times, looking us deeply in the eyes. Eventually, we tried to leave, but Davy Jones II had other ideas - he kept swimming so close that we literally couldn’t go anywhere. As far as excuses go, being late because you’re being held hostage by a whale is a pretty good one. This encounter was one of many examples of the friendly character of Davy Jones II, a whale whose curiosity and warmth suggest that the wonder we feel in their presence may, at times, be mutual.”
Eline van Aalderink
“I realised who was Davy Jones in 2021. I was on a tour on a RIB boat a day of very calm sea and we were having a great time with minke whales and dolphins. We moved to search other animals when we saw a dark patch in the distance. Curious about what it was we approached the area and recognise the back of a humpback whale that was logging. We stopped the engines and waited at a respectful distance from the whale. After a few minutes Davy started moving a bit, breathe a bit more actively. He swam slowly, staying at the surface getting closer and closer until he almost touched the boat. We could observe his nostrils opening wide and smell his breath when exhaling. Davy turned on his side getting parallel to the boat, letting us appreciate his proper size, he then rolled with his white pectoral fin getting out of the water and let it fall down, slapping the water and splashing us! After that, Davy swam a bit away, showed us his unique fluke while getting for a deep dive. We were all amazed and were waiting for this humpback to resurface, while looking at the smoke coming from the erupting volcano far away in the south. That’s when Davy decided the volcano was not epic enough and breached three times in a row, his full body getting out of the water in a smooth flip, falling back in a huge splash. What a legend.”
Miquel Pons
“3 moments with this whale really struck my mind, in very similar ways:
One really sunny summer day, a lot of fog had picked up on the bay, and most boats had to travel far West to find interesting sightings. We came out in the late morning only to find a sleeping whale no one had seen not far from Engey, a lot closer than expected. This whale stayed perfectly still, seemingly not moving an inch, not breathing, completely flat at the surface. Only after a couple of minutes we realised, it was Davy Jones 2. We stopped moving, turned off engines and stayed peacefully watching it rest, as we realised it was very slowly aiming for our boat. It slowly breathed and woke up, coming to bump its snout on our boat ("boop!") several times, before turning its head to look at us, diving down slowly around our boat a couple of times, disappearing in the foggy seas one last time.
Last year in 2024, we had a full week were feeding was crazy. Lots of whales were lunge diving with each other, clearly collaborating to eat together. In one of those moments, we had the privilege to see 3 humpback whales bubble netting, circle after circle, one whale bubbling circles whilst the others lunge fed in pairs. This behaviour had been started by Davy Jones 2, who seeing the 2 other whales feeding together, decided to help them out and bubble the fish to the surface. Not only a spectacular view, we also just had noticed cooperation from this whale! But, later on, the other two started copying it. A clear transmission of knowledge, as Davy Jones just decided to show up out of the blue and make bubbles. For that week, we saw bubbles every day, and Davy Jones 2 was always somewhere around.
This year again, the bubble feeding got crazy, making us more than excited. Around the same time in June, we were out during a midnight tour, we had found a lot of whales and birds, all in the same area. 2 of these humpbacks were lunge feeding simultaneously in front of us, going on and on. Suddenly, we spotted a third whale incoming, seemingly trying to join the two others. Just like a year before, the whales started to bubble, circle after circle, just as we understood this was Davy Jones 2 again! Every time the whales resurfaced, we strangely heard huge growls. This was Davy Jones 2, vocalizing out of the water, as the whales got closer and closer to us, almost as if to talk with us. In one last growl, Davy Jones 2 went away, further to another group of whales; who knows, maybe it would go and bubble its way through the others to help them feed.”
Alexandre Paumier
Miquel Pons
Interesting to learn about known individuals!