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Northern Iceland Seal Count Recorded 441 Seals, Almost Unchanged From 2025

Several seals resting on rocks by the coast near Hvammstangi in Iceland
Conservation · Population & status

The Icelandic Seal Center’s 2026 Great Seal Count recorded 441 seals along just over 100 kilometres of coastline in northern Iceland on 27 July. The count covers Vatnsnes and Heggstaðanes, an important monitoring and viewing area for harbour seals (Phoca vitulina). Participants are instructed to record every seal they see, however, and the published result does not provide a species-level breakdown of the 441 animals.

Forty-three volunteers took part after a briefing led by Sandra Granquist, head of seal research at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute and the Icelandic Seal Center. Teams covered the shore from Reykjaskóli to Sigríðarstaðavatn, south of Hvítserkur. The count itself took almost five hours.

The result was almost unchanged from the 445 seals counted in 2025. That figure had been about 19 per cent below the roughly 550 counted in each of the preceding two years. More than 1,000 seals were recorded along the route in several counts between 2008 and 2010.

A local count, not a national population estimate

The center described the 2026 result as concerning, while noting that strong winds on the count day may have reduced the number of visible animals. It also cautioned against drawing overly strong conclusions from the survey. This is a local, one-day indicator rather than a formal estimate of Iceland’s total harbour-seal population.

A new national assessment of harbour seals is under way in 2026. Drones are being used to survey Faxaflói Bay and the coast of northwest Iceland, which the center says should provide a clearer picture of the population’s status.

Sources and image credit

  1. Results of the Great Seal Count 2026Primary report from the Icelandic Seal Center, published 12 August 2026. Used for the count date, route, participation, results, historical comparison, weather caveat and the new harbour-seal assessment.
  2. The Great Seal CountOfficial method and purpose page from the Icelandic Seal Center. Used to clarify that participants record all visible seals and that the count covers Vatnsnes and Heggstaðanes.

Image: Przemek Pietrak / Wikimedia Commons — harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) resting on the rocky coast at Hvammstangi, Iceland; representative image from the same region as the count, not animals documented during the 2026 survey · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

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