Nú er sumarið á enda. Seinasti vinnudagurinn hjá mér er liðinn og á meðan þú lest þetta er ég að gera mig líklegan til að byrja aftur í skólanum. Sumarið hefur bara verið nokkuð gott, skemmtileg vinna, gott samstarfsfólk og gott veður (allavegana að mestu leiti). Selatalning í lok júlí heppnaðist nokkuð vel, og taldir voru rúmlega 1000 selir. Unglistarhátiðin (Eldur í Húnaþingi), sem var seinustu helgina í júlí, heppnaðist vel að mínu mati, mikið af fólki á svæðinu og nóg af skemmtiefni, s.s. hinir árlegu tónleikar í Borgarvirki, tónleikar með Dikta, ball og ýmislegt fleira.

Ágúst hefur verið alveg ágætur, hann fór af stað með rosalega góðu veðri en seinustu vikuna hefur verið heldur grátt yfir, og stöku vatnsdropar. Ferðamannatímabilið virðist vera nánast komið að lokum, sem dæmi má nefna að í fimmtudaginn 26. ágúst komu ekki nema 20 ferðamenn inn til okkar, aðallega í upplýsingaleit. Fjöldi gesta þetta sumarið er kominn upp í u.þ.b. 5800 manns, og það má búast við að eitthvað bætist við í september. Opnunartíminn verður styttur í september, og verður þá opið á milli 10-14 á virkum dögum, svo að enn er hægt að líta inn ef einhver verður á ferðinni í september.

Annars vil ég bara þakka fyrir mig, þetta sumar hefur verið mikil og góð lífreynsla og ég tel mig hafa lært heilan helling í sumar.

Kv. Benóný Þór Björnsson

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Mér finnst alveg ótrúlegt að sumarið sé að verða búið því það hefur liðið svo hratt! Ég ætla að segja ykkur frá því sem að mínu mati stendur mest upp úr sumrinu.

Stærsti viðburður sumarsins hér á setrinu var að sjálfsögðu Selatalningin mikla þann 25. júlí. Ég taldi frá merkjum Bálkastaða/Bessastaða að Sæbóli. Það var mjög gott veður þann dag, sól og blíða. Talningin byrjaði vel hjá mér, ég sá sel eftir að hafa gengið í aðeins 10 mínútur. Ég var viss um að ég myndi telja fjölmarga seli. Síðan gékk ég í 5 mínútur í viðbót.. svo 15 mínútur.... svo 45 mínutur... næsta sel taldi ég ca klukkutíma síðar en ég taldi þann fyrsta. Mér fannst ég hafa gengið óþarflega lengi til einskis.
Síðan fór nú selunum að fjölga sem ég sá og lokatala mín var 14 selir og það tók mig ekki nema 3 tíma að labba þessa vegalengd. Ég var frekar þreytt að talningu lokinni enda hafði ég skellt mér á ball kvöldinu áður og var kannski ekki í besta ástandinu fyrir 3 tíma labb ;) En það er gaman að vita að það töldust fleiri selir en í fyrra sem eru bara góðar fréttir fyrir ferðamennina sem og starfsfólk setursins.

Ég hef haldið áfram að fara með selaskoðunarbátnum Brimli nánast daglega til að telja selina sem báturinn "sér". Þessar bátsferðir brjóta skemmtileg upp daginn hjá mér. Ég er með fáránlega flottar græjur í talninguna, svo góðan kíki að ég get talið fellingarnar á selunum og þar að auki er ég með fjarlægðarmæli. Það næsta sem við höfum komist selunum eru 38 metrar!!! Það er bara nokkuð gott! Það getur verið alveg ótrúlega fyndið að sjá hvernig selirnir flatmaga á steinunum og kippa sér varla upp við bátinn og fólkið á honum.  Við höfum séð selamömmu siða til kópinn sinn, útsel sem hefur flutt inn á landselina, smávægileg áflog milli brimla og það skemmtilegasta var þegar við sáum einn selinn leika sirkuslistir fyrir okkur. Sá selur stökk upp úr sjónum og lék það eftir nokkrum sinnum. Að sjálfsögðu varð allt vitlaust á bátnum af gleði :)

Vinnan hér á Selasetrinu hefur verið afar skemmtileg og lærdómsrík. Fyrir utan að vera komin með nördisma fyrir selum þá hef ég kynnst góðu samstarfsfólki og lært meira um eigin heimabyggð.
Njótið restarinnar af sumrinu blómin mín og sjáumst vonandi á Selasetrinu eða á Brimli.

Selaknús, Sigurrós

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Jæja, þá fer að koma að lokum sumars og margt hefur gerst hérna í Húnaþingi vestra.

Við erum bún að vera mjög heppin með veður í seinni part júlí og byrjun ágúst. Sól og vel yfir 20 stiga hiti dag eftir dag.

Um verslunarmannahelgi var mikil umferð um Selasetrið og alltaf finnst mér jafn skemmtilegt að sjá hve margir íslendingar koma að heimsækja okkur.

Myndlista og bókagerða sýningin “Grafík og Skræður” eftir Guðlaugu Friðriksdóttur var í Selasetrinu mest allan júlí og fengu margir foreldrar hugmynd frá sýningunni um að láta börnin sín sem voru að nálgast fermingaraldurinn búa til sína eigin gestabók. Þar á meðal var einn faðir sem ætlaði að láta drenginn sinn prjóna kápuna á gestabókinna.

Síðan verð ég að segja frá því að Selasetrið fékk nýlega nýja liti á boli í barnastærð og hefur bolasalan rokið upp úr öllu valdi.

Unglistarhátíðin Eldur í Húnaþingi var haldin á Hvammstanga 22 – 25 ágúst og skreyttu heimamenn göturnar sínar og bóndabæi í fyrirfram ákveðnum litum. Flestir lögðu sig mikið fram og var bærinn og sveitin fagur gul, rauð, græn og blá. Þetta kom erlendum ferðamönnum skemmtilega á óvart og fékk ég margar fyrirspurnir um hvað væri í gangi.

Grettishátíð í Grettisbóli fór fram á Laugarbakka þann 7 – 8 ágúst og voru víkingabúðir, mismunandi víkingarnámskeiði og víkingamarkaður fyrir gesti og gangandi. Hina árlega aflraunakeppni fór fram á laugardeginum með pompi og prakt og var góð þáttaka.

Núna hvet ég alla þá sem ekki hafa komið í heimsókn og eiga leið framhjá að kíkja á Selasetrið áður en við lokum fyrir veturinn. Í september verður opið frá 10 – 14 alla daga annars er alltaf hægt að opna setrið samkvæmt samkomulagi.

Ég vona að sumarið sé búið að vera ykkur ánægjuríkt og að þið njótið síðustu daga sumarsins með bros á vör.

Kveðja, Karólína.

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Hi everybody!

This is Laila and Ester. We would like to tell you a bit what we have been doing since the last blog.

About our job as a volunteers, we are happy to say that we already collected a lot of data for the studies and we started to analyse it.
Besides, we have also watched few times some of the seals we tagged. For the moment, it has always been around  the Ósar area. This was absolutely amazing for us and a fantastic thing for the project.

As a Seal Center’s volunteers we also took part in the Great Seal Counting Day. The previous days before the counting, and together with the people of the Museum, we put the yellow sticks and flags all along the coast in order every participant knew the limits of his area. And of course, we also participated in the counting. Each of us did a couple of sections. It was a really nice experience!

On the other hand, we had the opportunity to enjoy the Hvammstangi Summer Festival. We went to the parade, the Borgavirki concert, we did the Jogging day and of course we went to the night dance :)

As you can see, we are really into the Icelandic live, culture and costumes.

Hope you have enjoyed our news.

Keep in touch!

Laila and Ester

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There has been a lot going on in the Seal Center this summer! As you may have heard, the staff has increased from 3 staff members to 8, at least during the summer. Beside the manager Hrafnhildur Ýr and us (Sandra and Per Åke), we can now proudly present Karólína (reception), Sigurrós (tourism research), Benóný (reception and tourism research) and last but not least our two volunteers from Spain; Laila and Ester (seal ecology research).

In the beginning of the summer, Hrafnhildur, Per Åke and Sandra attended a conference in Abisko, north of Sweden. The conference was called “Tourism, People and Protected Areas in Polar Wildness” and we presented our project The Wild North there. At the conference we met a lot of new (and familiar) interesting people.

There is a lot of research going on at the moment! Biologists and sometimes also tourism researchers, often have to do most of their field work in the summer and we are no exception. At Vatnsnes peninsula, we have our two Spanish girls who are counting seals and collecting data about the behaviour of seals on seal watching sites. They are doing a great job and they have already collected a lot of new data for us to analyze.

In June and in the beginning of July, we tagged seals with radio tags, to be able to investigate the movements of seals in and out of the river mouths at Bjargós and Sigriðstaðaós. If you see a seal with an antenna, you should know that it is not an alien, only a tagged seal! You can read more about this project on the homepage soon.

 

Photo: A tagged seal with a radio tag on its head and a roto tag on its back flipper

Photo: Part of the seal tagging team: Garðar from Stórhóll, Halldór from Súluvellir, Ester (volunteer from Spain) and Sandra (project manager from the Seal Center). Laila (volunteer from Spain) and Olle Karlsson (a Swedish seal expert) also took part of the seal tagging process.

We are also investigating the number of tourists coming to Hvammstangi (paying visits to the Seal Museum) and their background. Last year, about 6 000 tourists visited the museum and 4 500 of them were foreigners. The figures for this year seem to be higher. The most frequent nationalities are German and French but there are also a lot of Swiss and Austrians. Our close neighbours (Scandinavians and Brits) are very few. The main reason for coming to Hvammstangi is said in the interviews to be seal watching.
If we figure that each tourists spends 1000 ISK per day, this means 6 million ISK as income from tourists for Havmmstangi. But probably they spend 10 000 ISK per person so 60 million is a more probable figure. That contributes to maintain the service standard of Hvammstangi

In August, Per Åke and Sandra will attend another conference in Latvia, where parts of our research will be presented. At the moment, we are preparing for that and making analyzes of the data we have collected during the last few years and so far this summer. We are looking forward to the conference! It is always inspiring to attend conferences, even though it also takes a lot of work to prepare for presentations.

All the best,
Sandra Granquist and Per Åke Nilsson

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Sæl veriði!

Nú er sumarið hálfnað og því kominn tími til að fara yfir hvað hefur gengið á undan.

Tvær listasýningar hafa komið og farið, og sú þriðja er í gangi, en sú sýning ber nafnið Grafík og skræður, og er samblanda af myndlistasýningu og sýningu á bókbandi.

Fjöldi heimsókna í Selasetrið hefur aukist hægt og örugglega, frá þeim 2-3 einstaklingum sem komu á dag þegar ég byrjaði að vinna hér í maí, upp í að nú eru að koma til okkar frá 50 upp í 100 manns á dag. Einnig hefur Selasetrið fengið nokkra athygli í sumar, bæði hef ég fengið til mín leiðsögumenn sem hafa viljað fræðast um safnið til þess að geta komið með hópa, og einnig kom til mín hún Steinunn Harðardóttir, sem sér um útvarpsþáttinn Út um græna grundu á Rás 1, og tók viðtal við mig sem var síðan útvarpað í þætti hennar. Hægt er að lesa um þáttinn og hlusta hér.

Óðum styttist í Selatalninguna miklu, en hún er dagsett sunnudaginn 25. júlí og hvet ég alla sem hafa áhuga á að leggja hönd á plóg að hafa samband við okkur á Selasetrið.

Annars er það nú ekki fleira sem ég hef frá að segja eins og er og enda þá á því að hvetja sem alla flesta að leggja leið sína til Húnaþings vestra.

Benóný Þór

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Það er alltaf nóg um að vera í Selasetrinu og ekki vantar strauminn af bæði íslenskum og erlendum ferðamönnum sem streyma inn á hverjum degi. Við reynum að fá sem flesta erlenda ferðamenn til að svara stuttri könnun fyrir okkur, í könnuninni eru ýmsar almennar spurningar og einnig er spurt um áhugasvið þeirra á Íslandi, hvort þeir hafi komið áður, vilji koma aftur að vetri til og hvernig Íslandsferðin hafi til tekist svo einhvað sé nefnt.

Við höfum fengið mjög jákvæð svör frá ferðamönnunum. Einnig hafa þeir kost á því að útskýra áhuga sinn á selum í þessari könnun. Mjög margir taka það fram að selir séu sætir, fallegir eða skemmtileg dýr sem gaman er að fylgjast með. Aðrir nefna að það séu ekki selir í þeirra heimalandi og þess vegna finnist þeim selir svo spennandi. Flest svörin eru á þá leið að þeir hafi jákvæða skoðun á selum og þeim finnst stórkostlegt að geta séð þá í sínu náttúrulega umhverfi en ekki aðeins í dýragörðum eins og oft erlendis.

Einnig er farið að senda starfsmann Selasetursins (mig) með selaskoðunarbátnum Brimli til að kanna hvernig selirnir bregðast við návist manna af sjó. Enn sem komið hef ég ekki farið margar ferðir með Brimli en stefnan er tekin á að fara með þeim 2-3 ferðir í viku. Þessar selaskoðunarferðir með Brimli hafa svo sannarlega slegið í gegn hjá ferðamönnunum. Við á Selasetrinun erum dugleg að benda ferðafólkinu á þessar ferðir enda eru þær mjög skemmtilegar. Hver ferð tekur u.þ.b. 2 tíma og eftir að hafa fylgst með selunum þá fá allir heitt kakó og bakkelsi. Gæti ekki verið betra :)

Að lokum við ég segja hversu ánægjulegt það er að sjá alla þá Íslendinga sem leggja leið sína á Selasetrið. Gaman er að sjá áhugann hjá börnunum og oft fáum við auka fróðleik frá eldri kynslóðinni sem hefur ef til vill meiri reynslu og aðra þekkingu af selum, selveiðum, matreiddum sel og fleira en við höfum. Alltaf er gaman að auka innistæðuna í þekkingabankanum sínum :)

Takk fyrir mig og sjáumst á Selasetrinu kveðja, Sigurrós

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Heil og sæl öll sömul,

Núna er Selasetrið búið að vera opið í aðeins meira en mánuð og gestagangur í júní var meiri í ár en í fyrra. Þannig að hvorki eldgosið né kreppan er að hafa mikil áhrif á ferðamannastrauminn hér fyrir norðan.

Það er alltaf gaman að sjá hve margir íslendingar hafa áhuga á að kíkja á safnið og hafa þeir verið að koma í tugatali á hverjum degi;)

Mikill áhugi er á Íslandi þessa dagana og höfum við fengið kvikmyndamenn, blaðamenn og rithöfunda í heimsókn til að fræðast um safnið og selina hér í nágreninu.

Einnig hef ég hitt marga gesti sem hafa sagt mér frá eigin reynslu af selum og er alltaf gaman að fá að heyra þeirra sögur og fræðast um hvernig selurinn hélt í þeim líf hér árum áður. Þannig að ef þið hafið eitthverjar skemmtilegar eða fræðandi sögur um seli eða myndir endilega sendið okkur tölvupóst eða komið og segið okkur frá og það er aldrei að vita hvort að við hengjum þær upp á vegginn hjá okkur í sumar.

Fyrir stuttu opnaði listakonan Edda Lilja Guðmundsdóttiruna sýninguna
"52 húfur á 52 vikum" og hefur hún vakið mikla lukku meðal gesta.
Erlendir ferðamenn hafa spurt hvort að mögulegt væri að kaupa eina og eina húfu en ég hef benda þeim að kíkja í Kidka í staðinn.

María Sigurðardóttir opnaði síðan rosalega kósý Kaffihús hér við hliðina á okkur fyrir stuttu sem heitir Hlaðan og hefur verið stanslaus straumur þangað inn af ferðamönnum jafnt og heimamönnum. Heimagerða súpan og heimabakaða brauðið hennar Maríu hefur verið að halda lífi í okkur hér á Selastrinu ;)

Síðan hvet ég alla að kíkja til okkar á safnadaginn 11. júlí þar sem það verður ókeypis aðgangur.

Munið síðan essin þrjú:

 SUMAR, SVEITASÆLA, SELASETUR

Kveðja Karólína

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Góðan og blessaðan daginn!

Eitthvað hefur nú misfarist að blogga hjá okkur undanfarið, en við afsökum okkur með brjálaðri vinnutörn. Hér er allt á fullu við að gera klárt fyrir opnanir fyrstu sýninganna næsta sunnudag, en þá hefst formleg sumardagskrá setursins. Það er mjög gaman að upplifa hversu mikinn áhuga listafólkið sjálft er farið að hafa á því að sýna hjá okkur, en fjórar sýningar eru bókaðar í sumar.

Fyrsti sjálfboðaliðinn okkar hún Laila frá Spáni, er komin til landsins og farin að vinna við rannsóknir á selum. Aðrir sumarstarfsmenn eru Sigurrós Björg Sigvaldadóttir (rannsóknir), Benóný Björnsson (rannsóknir og afgreiðsla/upplýsingamiðstöð) og Karólína Gunnarsdóttir (afgreiðsla/upplýsingamiðstöð).

Starfsmenn munu skiptast á að blogga hér í sumar og því ætti að vera af nógu að taka hér!

Við vonumst til að sjá ykkur öll hress og kát í sumar :)

Kveðja, Hrafnhildur

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I have just met the summer for the second time here in Iceland. Like last time, it was winter. But that´s Iceland, I have found out: always different and full of unexpected experiences.

In February, my wife and I saw Gerpla on the National Theater scene. I have read both the book and the saga so we were familiar with the story even if we did not understand all the jokes. But we appreciated highly the choreography: you have really a good director here in Iceland!

After the play, we felt for a beer and visited a pub. It was on the first floor, which we found a bit strange, and there were almost no people. We had our beer and took a seat alone at a long table where we could enjoy the sight of the streetlife below.  An Icelandic couple asked if they could sit together with us and we started to talk. They told us that soon there will be a performance of the oldest punk-rock band in Iceland, Fræbblarnir, and that they were in family with the band. In five minutes, there were almost twenty persons sitting at our table, all related  to the band. And when the band came, we were introduced to the band members. As a matter of fact, one of the members had been teaching at Holar so we felt like colleagues. Unfortunately, I sat just half a meter from his guitar. But the evening was great.

My research project about backmovers to Iceland is moving forward.  I have now got the names of those who have moved back to Patreksfjördur, Hvammstangi, Siglufjördur and Vopnafjördur. What remains is to ask them why, a rather interesting question. Kvænangen kommune in Norther Norway will also be investigated like the Faroe Islands.

I have been in Sweden in order to pick up my car and during the stay, I visited Kvænangen. It is really far to the north, 70th parallell, and the small community has no hotel so we had to stop at a hotel 60 km before Burfjord, the central place of the community. Next morning we were told that there had been an avalanche during the night and the road was blocked and they could not tell us how long it would take. The road is E6 and it is like in Iceland, no alternative roads. So we had to go back for a 400 km long roundabout way. But the day was sunny and the view over the mountains was magnificent so we had a very pleasant time in the car. And the hotel room in Alta was on the brink of the Arctic Ocean with a fantastic view so we really got on well. And the meeting was very fruitful.

On the tour back to Iceland by Norröna, we stopped in Torshavn and I had the opportunity to meet different people of importance for me there. The meeting place was the Foreign Ministry of the Faroe Islands, probaly the only foreign ministry of the world where you just can pop in and have a cup of coffe in the staff room. And they assured me that the realtions with foreign powers was good.

Unfortunately, we brought my wife´s granddaughter (20 years old) with Norröna  to Hvammstangi and today. During the last days Keflavik has been closed a lot so I hink we might have to adopt her.

All the best, Per Åke

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Hugur okkar allra er hjá fólkinu í nágrenni gossins í Eyjafjallajökli sem á á hættu að missa allt sitt og enn á ný erum við minnt harkalega á að náttúran lýtur engum mannlegum lögmálum, hún verður ekki tamin. Hér norðan heiða veltir fólk fyrir sér hver áhrifin verða ef við taka suðlægar áttir. Hvaða áhrif mun öskufallið t.d. hafa á sumarbeit bæði sauðfjár og hrossa á heiðunum?

Ferðaþjónustuaðilar víða um land eru uggandi um áhrif gossins á komandi vertíð en ljóst er að ef gosið verður langvinnt mun það hafa gífurleg áhrif á afkomu margra. Fyrst og fremst snúa áhyggjurnar af því hvort að erlendir ferðamenn komi yfir höfuð til landsins, en á þeim byggir Selasetrið meiri hluta innkomu sinnar yfir sumartímann. 

Kveðja, Hrafnhildur

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Jæja þá erum við Sandra búnar að liggja yfir umsóknum og ganga frá ráðningum fyrir sumarið. Við hlökkum til að takast á við sumarið með frábæru nýju starfsfólki. Helstu nýjungarnar hjá okkur eru þær að í stað þess að ráða í 2 fullar stöður í afgreiðslu og upplýsingamiðstöð réðum við í eina fulla stöðu þar og bjuggum til eina blandaða stöðu þar sem viðkomandi sinnir bæði móttöku ferðamanna og tekur þátt í rannsóknarstarfi setursins. Þar að auki er svo ein ný rannsóknarstaða á sviði náttúrutengdrar ferðaþjónustu. Alls verðum við því 8 talsins í fullri vinnu í sumar.

Undanfarið hef ég unnið með honum Þorsteini á Náttúrustofu Norðurlands vestra við að undirbúa Dag húnvetnskrar náttúru. Þar koma ýmsir fræðimenn og kynna rannsóknir sínar á húnvetnskri náttúru og ýmsu henni tengdu. Dagskráin er fjölbreytt og mjög metnaðarfull og ég hlakka mikið til dagsins. Að dagskrá lokinni bjóðum við svo ráðstefnugestum í nokkurs konar afmælisupphitun í Selasetrinu, en í ár verður setrið 5 ára gamalt og Náttúrustofan 10 ára. Við ætlum okkur svo að halda aðra veglega afmælisveislu þegar að nær dregur sumri þar sem allir verða boðnir.

Ég sé fram á frábært sumar...ef ég kemst einhvern tíman að heiman fyrir snjó þ.e.a.s. :)

kveðja, Hrafnhildur

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Summer jobs: Early this year we put out and ad for two research internships in connection with The Wild North project this summer. We had great response and over 300 people applied. Sandra has now chosen 2 af the applicants to come and work for us this summer and we are very excited to meet them. I´ve also had quite a few applications for other summer jobs which I´m sorting out now. It´s great to see how many are interested in our work.

Changes: Benjamín our carpenter has started changing our reception and making ready for our new exhibitions which we will open at the beginning of June.

Art exhibitions: Four artists have booked exhibitions at the center this summer and they are: Anna Gunnarsdóttir textile artists www.annagunnars.is, Edda Lilja Guðmundsdóttir textile artist www.snigla.com, Guðlaug Friðriksdóttir painter and bookbinder and Ingibjörg Sigurðardóttir painter.

All the best, Hrafnhildur

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A blog from Sandra Granquist ecologist.

The 18th and 19th of February, Per-Åke and I went to the Agricultural Science Congress 2010 on Hotel Saga, Reykjavík to present a poster about our research. The presentation was made on behalf of the Icelandic Seal Center, The Institute of Freshwater Fisheries and Hólar University College. The poster was named „Interaction Between Seals and Tourists at Vatnsnes peninsula- who´s watching whom?“ and described the preliminary results from the project The effect of tourists on seals (A part of The Wild North project). We discussed possible negative effects of tourists on the „lifestyle“ of seals. We also addressed nationalities of the visitors that came to the Icelandic Seal Centre and what was their purpose of coming to Iceland. In addition, we presented the first results of our study of tourist behaviour at the seal watching site Illugastaðir. It is very interesting to study the interactions between tourists and seals in this way, as we look at both the viewpoint of the tourists as well as the “viewpoint” of the seals regarding seal watching. The study that we where presenting will carry on the following two summers and it will be exciting to see the results that we will find!

As usual, at lot have been going on and we also have a lot to look forward to! At the moment, preparations for the field studies that will be carried out this summer are going on. We will start our field season on the seal watching sites and in the seal-haul out areas in the beginning of June and time goes by quickly... This summer we will get help in the field from volunteers and students, both Icelandic and foreigners

The Great Seal Count, an annual event at the Seal Center, will be made the 25th of July this year. The Count is, like many of you already know, an organized walk around the Vatnsnes peninsula and Heggsstaðanes peninsula where all observed seals are counted and recorded. Until now, a lot of volunteers have been involved each year and we hope that it will be the case this year as well! The Great Seal Count will be advertised later, for example on our website.

This picture was taken on Rauðanes, Mýrum in July 2009 by Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson, ecologist.
 
Kveðja Sandra

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I have now been at the Seal Centre for a whole year (March 1st). The first time was rather tough: new situations, new country, new most everything. But as time goes by, things settled and my firm decision to quit after half a year changed to a firm decision to quit after one year. Now it has changed to a firm decision to quit after three years.

My first acquaintance with Iceland was three horrible winter storms in March last year. I got stuck with my car twice when I tried to go to Akureyri. That was a real experience since I have never got stuck in Sweden due to snow even if I have grown up in the north of Sweden with lots of snow and degrees up to minus 40.  This January has also been an experience since it has been the „hottest“ January in my entire life. It has been great, actually. And in Sweden, they have a couple of meters with snow. And when I talked to my former colleagues on Bornholm in Denmark, they tell me that they have been isolated for a week due to snow and storm. My old working place consists of two buildings but they can now use just one since the other one is covered by snow and they cannot find the door. They tell me that they will compete for next Winter Olympics.

NORA has said yes to an application by me for a project called „Tillbakaflyttare“ or back movers. I will check the motives for people moving back to their native settlements. Hopefully, some of the motives are positive and useful for the politicians when promoting the municipality to the rest of the world, hoping for more in movers. The localities I will investigate are Patreksfjörður, Húnaþing vestra, Siglufjörður and Vopnafjörður. None of these municipalities have been known for great increase in population but those who, despite that, anyway move back may have interesting motives.

The Wild North project is moving forward and I try to present the project at as many places as possible. Together with Sandra and Hrafnhildur we try to explain the project and  give the Seal Centre the reputation it certainly is worthy of.

My wife Lena is going to Sweden now and she will dig out the car from the snow so I can use when I come to Sweden in the middle of March. And with the first Norröna arrival after Easter, I will bring the car to Iceland again.

I will of course give a detailed description of that journey later on.

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 In the final weeks of 2009 I was getting quite convinced that we would suffer some budget cuts from the state. Therefore you can just imagine my relief when I saw that our funding was NOT cut at all in the 2010 budget laws. This means that in stead of pulling back we can continue to charge ahead, developing our activities, creating employment and increasing scientific knowledge in our area.

Our offices moved between Christmas and New Year. I said goodbye to Brekkagata 2 with a bittersweet heartache but I´ve been very comfortable there even though it was quite lonely the first years. I also have to admit that it was getting pretty crowded and my office was almost below zero on the coldest days, even though I tried to keep my toes warm with a small hot-air oven under my desk. Our new offices are quite the luxury and the staff is suffering from open space mania due to last well over Easter. Sandra hasn´t return from her Christmas Holiday in Sweden though so she will probably be a bit surprised when she sees she got the broom cupboard, sorry Sandra :)

All the best, Hrafnhildur

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These days I´m putting togeather the Icelandic Seal Center's annual newsletter and it's quite nice to see how much we have acheived this year.

For the last few weeks we have been brainstorming about research and projects we could participate in or maybe even started. Our main focus has been on international cooporation through research and product development. On our list are two brand new EU projects and two new North Atlantic projects we hope to get funding for next spring. Some of the project are built on old partnerships but others are establishing new contacts and new partners.

It´s not year clear how much funding the Icelandic Seal Center will get for next year's operations, but it´s pretty clear that the funding will be reduced. To respond to this I and the board have reached a mutual agreement about reducing my position down to 80% for 2010 (or untill enough funding has been secured). This doesn´t mean that we will reduce the work load much, we will do our best with what we´ve got. I´m optimistic.

Best regards

Hrafnhildur Ýr, manager

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Last week (6th-7th November) a conference on biological research in Iceland was held in Reykjavík to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Icelandic biological society and that 35 years have passed since the Institute of biology at the University of Iceland was founded. The conference was hosted in Askja, at the University of Iceland, Decode genetics headquarters and the Nordic house. On the conference, 107 talks were given and 110 posters presented. Me and my co-workers from the University of Iceland (Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir) and the Agricultural University in Hvanneyri (Anna Guðrún Þórhallsdóttir and Helga María Hafþórsdóttir, master student) presented 2 talks (Samskipti stóðhesta & Heimasvæði og tímanotkun íslenskra stóðhesta) and one poster (Hafa stóðhestar hamlandi áhrif á samskipti hrossanna innan síns hóps?). Among others, we presented some of the results that I found in my master thesis study (The social structure and interactions within groups of horses (Equus caballus) containing stallions). Unfortunately, this time I did not present any results from our seal research, since we have only just started analysing data from the last summer.

Around 300 people participated on the conference, not only researchers, but also students and other interested people. On the conference you were able to learn about most of the biological research that are being made on Iceland at the moment. This means a lot of studies, since biology is a widespread field and Icelandic biologists are known for being quite active! For example, studies on mammals, birds, fishes, plants, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, bacteriology, virology, physiology, cell biology and evolution were presented.
At the moment, we are planning next summer’s field studies. It´s exciting, but I will tell you more about that later.

Best regards,
Sandra

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Travel is part of tourism and sometimes the purpose of the tour. Other times, it can be a necessity, more or less agreeable. During October,I have had rather extraordinary travel experiences during my visits to two conferences, one in Alta in Northern Norway and one in Esbjerg a bit north of the German border. The distance between the two places is about 3 000 km. Almost exactly between them is my Swedish residence, Hammerdal. I expected to visit my home both on my way up and my way down.

The conferences were very informative and interesting. The one in Alta dealt with how to counteract out-migration from coastal peripheries in the North Atlantic region. The one in Esbjerg was an annual meeting-point for tourism researchers from the Nordic countries. Next year, it will take place in Akureyri.

The start of the tour was a bit troublesome since the bus from Akureyri did not appear in Hvammstangi on Friday the 9th of October. It had obviously blown away. I had to wait til next day when the bus came in due time and I could reach my flight to Copenhagen. Due to change of tickets, my perfect arrangement to reach Hammerdal by train was ruined and my wife Lena, who still was in Sweden, had to cancel her visits to relatives and meet me in Malmö at noon the 11th. After that, we drove 1100 km to Hammerdal and were there at 2 o’clock at night.

The trip to Alta by car was wonderful through a spectacular landscape and the return was also enjoyable. From Hammerdal, we took the night train to Esbjerg without any problems.

The travel back to Iceland started at our hotel room in Esbjerg. The train was scheduled to leave Esbjerg 05.45 and our flight at 11.55 from Kastrup. We expected a wake-up call at 4.45. Everything started, however, already at 03.45 when I had to pay a visit to the toilet and had forgotten that Lena had piled up our two bags and two trunks on the trouser-press and I tried to walk straight through the arrangement which ended up with a terrible noise and since I put my hand on the lighting button twice in order not to hit the floor to heavily, the light came and went which made Lena convinced that thunder and lightning had struck the hotel. I was slightly injured and we could go to sleep again for the resting hour to 4.45.

The transport to the railway station went well but on the train, there were about twenty youngsters who thought that the night had just begun and were drinking and making noise. For us, it just meant that we were photographed by mobile for deliver to U-tube.

The train had problems with leaves on the tracks so it drove at a speed of 20 km/hour which caused a delay in Fredricia where we changed train. The delay became worse since a speaker voice told us that we could not depart because they could not find the train which should draw the wagons. However, after a while we could start.

Due to the delay, I was sure that we would be too late to Kastrup for our flight and I was right. When we had 25 km back to Kastrup, we were offered a bus and stepped off the train. We were told to embark a bus a bit away and we had to pass a ”swing door lock” and since we were 48 persons with a lot of luggage, the sight of the passing through the lock was fabulous and well in class with Tivoli in Copenhagen. After having managed through, we were told that this was the wrong place and we hade to go back through the lock again and pass another one before we came to the bus which of course was too small for all luggage we had. After severe pressure, the luggage was forced into the bus and we could head for Kastrup.

The trip to Kastrup went well, remarkably enough, and the bus stopped at Terminal 2 at a quarter past eleven. We walked with a high pace to Terminal 3 since I knew that SAS is checking in for Iceland Express. When we came to the desk, we were told that Iceland Express now has check-in at Terminal 2. We hurried back to Terminal 2 and after passing all the desks, I could not see any desk with Iceland Express sign on so I asked at the last desk and they said that Iceland Express has its desk at the beginning of the terminal. We turned back but at the other end of the terminal, there was just Iran Air. I became desperate and left my trunk, certain that Lena was behind me and rushed to the Iran Air desk and asked for Iceland Express. That is Terminal 3, they said, but when they saw my frustration they checked with others and found out that it was five desks ahead and I rushed to that desk and it was the right one. Lena was also coming there and we started to check in when I noticed that one trunk was missing. Lena run back and found it. It stood totally alone with a ring of people around it waiting for the security people to come and empty Kastrup and shoot the trunk in pieces. Lena succeeded, however, to be ahead of them and took the trunk and we managed to check in exactly by closing time for the in-checking.

After passing the security control, Lena misinterpreted the departure time and said that there was a delay and we had plenty of time so we visited the tax free and then we walked in slow pace towards the gate when we heared the loud-speaker announce the absolutely last call for Iceland Express flight to Reykjavik. We rushed and embarked the plane as the very last passengers.

When we came to Reykjavik, we missed the bus to Hvammstangi with fifteen minutes and went to Iceland Air Hotel for a hotel room. It was of course fully booked but they had a mini-suite free so we stayed at the hotel and had a wonderful evening and night.

Next day we arrived to Hvammstangi in good order.

That’s all folks :)

Per Åke

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