Húsavík Whale Museum

Lonely Planet review

Best visited before you head out on a whale-watching trip, the excellent Húsavík Whale Museum will tell you all you ever needed to know about these gracious creatures. Housed in an old slaughterhouse at the harbour, the museum looks at the ecology and habits of whales, orcas, dolphins and other marine mammals, whale conservation, and the history of whaling in Iceland.

The 'Ocean Odyssey - Follow the Gulf Stream' exhibit has detailed information on the biology of whales, their habitats and the environmental threats they face, while the 10 enormous skeletons of humpback, minke and sperm whales (all found stranded or trapped in fishermen's nets) give you some idea of the gargantuan proportions of these mammals. There's also a 30-minute film chronicling whaling in Iceland and an exhibition devoted to Keiko, the killer whale captured off Iceland in 1979 and star of the movie Free Willy .