I had the privilege to spend a month and a half on Vigur Island in the Westfjords of Iceland.

This allowed me to study seal responce to tourism, and create the first count of the multi-species colony that is Vigur. But nothing would have been possible without David, to whom I owe that experience and everything that came with it.

Birds

There are at least 6 species of sea-birds on vigur, creating a very dynamic and segregated collony. Counting hundres of them was a long job, often stopped by the terns parents defending their nest. As such, David and I proceded slowly, giving them extensive rest periods in between the 20-30min counting sessions. We still got our fair share of screaming and full blown dive attacks though.

Terns couple when not in defence mode

Seals

Quite litterally sea puppies, these guys are trully living the life, at least from what we saw from land. They don’t seem like they are doing much, yet studying their behaviour proved facinating. Just stay clear from their rocks though, they can be grumpy.

Two harbour seals fighting over a rock

You can read some of the results here.

And my portfolio post about the VIRC

(•⌓•) ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ (:3 っ)っ