Author: Örvar Birkir Eiríksson

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.

In August, Visit North Iceland installed three works of art on the Artic Coast Way, to further promote the route. The artworks were created by a group of artists from Ukraine called UNDRUN/Dyvyna DECOR.

Part of this project was a sea lion that was installed at Hvammstangi. It will stay in front of Icelandic Seal Center this winter but a final location will be decided in the spring. Of course the seal will always be our main focus, however we are very pleased to now have a statue of a sea lion outside and the Icelandic Museum of Natural History exhibition on walruses inside.

The Icelandic Seal Center (ISC) and Northwest Iceland Nature Research Centre (NNV) have sign a new agreement to cement their continuing collaboration. Some members of NNV staff have been located in Hvammstangi for some years and have been a valuable part of the science-community here in Hvammstangi. For many years ISC and NNV have worked closely together and we at ISC are very happy to continue this good cooperation.

The pictures above show Starri Heiðmarsson director of NNV and Örvar B. Eiríksson manager of ISC signing the new contract.

The Icelandic Seal Center recently got a visit from Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttir, minister of food, fisheries and agriculture. The minister was visiting branches of the Marine and Freshwater Institute and one of those branches in located in Hvammstangi. That branch focuses on seal research and has worked closely with the Icelandic Seal Center for many years.

It was very good to discuss matters of the Icelandic seal population with the minister, and the role of the Icelandic Seal Center. The picture shows the minister with Gunnlaugur Ragnarsson chairman of the Icelandic Seal Center, Örvar B. Eiríksson manager, Hafþór Magnús Kristinsson employee and Sandra M. Granquist head of seal research.