Sandra Granquist attended the scientific conference Impacts of Human Disturbance on Arctic Marine Mammals that was held by NAMMCO the 13th-15th of October in Copenhagen. She gave a presentation there, with the title “Effects of wildlife watching tourism on Arctic marine mammals, with a special note on harbour seal watching in Iceland”. Sandra and her team have for several years conducted comprehensive research into the effects of tourism on wild animals, and the lecture, among other things, presented the findings of these studies.
Nordic Symposium
The 24th Nordic Symposium in Tourism and Hospitality was held in Reykjavik on the 1-3 October.
Dr Leah Burns, head of the tourism research department here at the Icelandic Seal Centre, was on the conference organising committee. Dr Burns ran a joint session with Sandra Granquist, head of our Biological Department, called “Responsibly Engaging with Animals in Tourism”.
Both of them presented papers in that session. The titles were:
1. Codes of conduct for seal watching: An investigation of guidelines for human behaviour
Authors: Elin Lilja Öqvist, Sandra Granquist, Georgette Leah Burns and Anders Angerbjörn
2. Interpretation in wildlife tourism: Assessing the effectiveness of signage to modify visitor behaviour at a seal watching site in Iceland
Authors: Sarah Marschall, Sandra Granquist and Georgette Leah Burns
Opening hours
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.
Use of thermal cameras
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
New Managing Director
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