Selasetur Íslands

Last week, an LTT2 (Learning, Teaching, Training) event took place in Turkey in connection with the Erasmus+ project Climate Challenge Adventure, which is managed by the Seal Center. The host school was Bilnet School in Balikesir, a city of over 300,000 people in western Turkey.

All project partners met there, and students and teachers from Iceland, Denmark, and Turkey came together to test innovative ways to address climate change and promote sustainability through game-based education, digital storytelling, and environmentally friendly practices.

The event was a great success and it was great to experience Turkish culture and hospitality. Part of the trip was a stop in Istanbul, which is an amazing city, both in terms of size and history.

Next on the project agenda are small local events for all project partners to be held in late May and early June. The next LTT event will be in Hvammstangi in mid-September.

Last week the manager of the Icelandic Seal Center was interviewed by Stuck in Iceland travel magazine. Many things were discussed, for example; code of conduct for seal watching, seal watching in VR, why should you visit Hvammstangi and Vatnsnes peninsula.
Here is a link to the interview.

Last November the EU funded Erasmus+ project Climate Challenge Adventure (2024-1-IS01-KA220-SCH-000243341) started, with The Icelandic Seal Center as a coordinator. The aim of the project is to raise young people’s awareness of climate change through innovative and interactive gamification, to provide them with the necessary knowledge and skills to take an active role in combating this global problem and to encourage their participation in climate action.

This project aims is also to provide a platform that combines education and entertainment, utilising the power of technology and art, enabling young people to develop environmental awareness and take concrete steps towards a sustainable future.

The partners in the project are: Grunnskóli Húnaþings vestra, Schwerpunkt Zentrum from Germany, Mariagerfjord Gymnasium from Denmark, Formación Academia Barcelona from Spain and Özel Balikesir Bilnet Ortaokulu from Turkey.

The startup meeting of the project was in Iceland í late November and shortly before Christmas was the first LTT (Learning, Teaching, Training) event in Denmark. The next big event is LTT2 in Turkey in early May. You can read more about the project on its website or Facebook-page, where more content and news will be added as the project develops.

The Icelandic Seal Center wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Icelandic Seal Center will be closed from 23. December to 5. January.

For over a year, The Icelandic Seal Center has been a participant in the EU project CE4RT (Circular Economy for Regenerative Tourism), together with 16 other Icelandic companies as well as over 60 companies from Finland, Poland, the Netherlands and Ireland.
The project consisted of a number of online lectures as well as an educational tour of south Iceland and participating in the International Regenerative Tourism Conference in Ireland, which was the finale of the project. The conference was held at the Skellig Hotel on the Dingle Peninsula in western Ireland. It was green and beautiful there, despite the fact that it was already mid-November.

The Icelandic Seal Center’s biggest benefit from the CE4RT project, however, was that it supported participants to hire consultants to help them achieve environmental certification. The Icelandic Seal Center was fortunate to have Hjörtur Smárason from Saltworks as a consultant. He has worked on tourism policy for Northwest Iceland and therefore knows the area well.

After considerable work and various adjustments to the facility of The Icelandic Seal Center, it received Green Key environmental and sustainability certification at the end of July. Green Key is a certification that is becoming increasingly popular and there are now over 6,000 companies in over 70 countries with Green Key certification. In Iceland, there are 21 companies with this certification, but The Icelandic Seal Center is the first company in the attraction category to receive Green Key certification in Iceland.
The Green Key certification is a major milestone in the Seal Center’s journey to continue to promote sustainable and regenerative tourism in Húnaþing vestra, where the seal, of course, plays a central role.