Selasetur Íslands

The Icelandic Seal Center recently won a bid for a grant with the Growth fund of North West of Iceland for the project Continuing growth of nature based tourism in Húnaþing vestra. The project involves design of the expansion of the Seal Centers exhibition as well as design of the area outside the Center as well as the Hvammstangi harbour area as a whole. The goal of the project is to engourage tourists to stay longer in the area. 

The grant was for IKR 6 millions. Total cost of the project is estimated roughly IKR 13 millions. 

The Seal Center has many partners in this project: The municipality of Húnaþing vestra, Kaupfélag V-Hún general store, Toursim association of  V-Hún, Gauksmýri ehf, Reykir museum, The library of V-Hún, The school of Húnaþing vestra, The Tourism Department of the University of Hólar, Kidka Wool Factory, Sealwatching and Institute of Freshwater Fisheries.

The project will officially start at the end of november this year and finish mid year 2015. Project manager is  Unnur Valborg Hilmarsdóttir, managing director of the Seal Center.

Earlier this year the Seal Center was part of a successful bid, with the University of Stockholm, for a grant from the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences to address issues concerning the ecology and social behavior of different seal species from a diachronic perspective in connection to human activity and environmental change. Sandra Granquist, Leah Burns and Erlingur Hauksson are currently in Stockholm participating in the first of two workshops on human-seal interrelationships funded by this grant. Sandra and Erlingur will give a presentation on “Ecology and ethology of current seal populations” and Leah will give a presentation on “Cultural values and perceptions of seals in Northern Europe”.

The second workshop will be held in Iceland in 2015.

The Seal Center has representatives at the Þjóðarspegill, an annual conference at the University of Iceland on October 31st 2014. 

Dr. Georgette Leah Burns, head of Tourism Research Depatment, will give a talk on wild life and how tourists can experiense wild life and at the same time minimize the effect on the life of the animals. 

Dr. Burns also has a poster at the conference with her coauthors, Sandra Granquist, head of biology research at the Seal Center and  Sarah Marschall,  master student at the Seal Center. The poster is about the connection of wild life and tourism, mainly different ways to inform tourists on how to conduct in the proximity of wild life and the impact of information given.   

The work of Seal Center head of biology research, Sandra Granquist, and Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir is being covered in an article in Conservation Magazine. Sandra and Hrefna have been researching the effect of land based tourism on seals.

Click here to read the article.