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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