Icelandic Seal Center
The number of visitors in October doubled from last year, as a result we are going to stay open for November. The opening hours are 12 noon to 3 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Please get in touch if you would like to visit the centre at other times.
This summer the Seal Center has been working on a project in cooperation with Svarmi ehf, experimenting with the use of thermal cameras attached to drones when counting seals. The thermal camera is attached to a drone as well as a regular camera. After the drone has flown over the seal colony the count will be done off the photos from the twon kinds of cameras and compared as well as to counting results made from land.
Potpulation size counts are normally made from air. It can however sometimes be difficult to count from air for the seals can blend in with the environment. The experiment is to determine if the results will be more accurate when using a thermal camera rather than a normal one or manual counts.
Camera as is being used in the experiment
Earlier this summer the managing director of the Seal Center, Unnur Valborg Hilmarsdóttir, gave in her notice. Sigurður Líndal Þórisson has now been hired for the job as of October 1st. Unnur will be acting as the managing director until then.
Sigurður is from Lækjamót in Víðidalur but has been living in London for 20 years. For the past 4 years he has been in a managerial position at Expedia, world largest travel company. Amongst other things Sigurður was responsible for completing a complex project executed in over 20 languages, in 3 continents and costing over a billion Icelandic krona’s.
Sigurður has an acting degree from Arts Educational London School of Drama; M.A. degree in art strategy and management from Birkbeck College, University of London; and a teaching license from Strode’s College.
Sigurður has directed over 50 plays og taught at some of the most prestige acting schools in the UK for more than a decade as well as being an assistant theater manager at the Tabart theater in London for the past three years.
Sigurður is married to Greta Clough, puppet artist and actor from Vermont U.S. They have a one year old daughter, Elín Rannveig Líndal.
The board of the Seal Center welcomes Sigurður to the Seal Center. The board also wants to thank Unnur Valborg for her contribution to the Seal Center for the past two years as well as wishing her well in her upcoming projects.
Sigurður Líndal
On July 19th seals at the coastline of Heggstaðanes and Vatnsnes, total of 100 km, was counted by the Seal Center’s specialists and volunteers. This is the ninth time that the counting takes place.
This year total of 446 seals were counted (mostly harbouseals). That number is significantly lower than former counts, of between 614 and 757 in 2011 until 2014 and between 614 and 757 animals the years before, 2007-2010. Even though the numbers this year are lower it is important to keep in mind that these numbers are only a clue to the minimum amount of seals in the area. Alot of factors affect the number of seals that can be spotted, weather beining one of them. The weather during the count this year was a lot worse than in the past years, fog, rain and wind. The seal is more likely to be on land when the weather is good, sunny and still.
It is also important to keep in mind that the numbers do not indicate the total population of the Harbour Seal in Iceland. The last full population evaluation in Iceland was done by the Seal Center in 2011 and the results indicate that the population has been the same since 2003 at a total of just under 12 thousand animals. Since then the center has not gotten funding to make full population estimates. Partial counts made in 2014 indicate that there is a decrease in the population. The Seal Center is hoping for funding to be able to make a total population estimate in 2016.
Visitor numbers to the Seal Center have been increasing steadyly in the past few years. June this year is no exeption. Total number of visitors to the information center at the Seal Center in june is about 35% higher than in june last year. This increase is significantly greater than between june 2013 and june 2014 when we saw around 15% increase.
In 2014 total number of visitors was just over 20 thousand and this year estimated guest count is between 23 and 25 thousand.
It is clear of these numbers that tourists are coming to Húnaþing vestra in greater numbers than before. Understandably so for in the area you can find unspoilt nature as well as high level services for tourists.