The activities of the Whale Museum have been successful this spring and summer. Work on the new whaling and whale watching exhibit was mostly completed this spring and has attracted the attention of visitors this summer. The exhibition will be officially opened later this fall. The Steypireyðar exhibition also continues to attract the attention of visitors and the museum has generally received positive reviews from visitors.
Good attendance
Attendance has been good so far this year. The number of visitors to the museum increased this spring compared to 2016, but this summer the number decreased slightly. Overall, attendance is expected to be similar to last year's record year when 36 visitors visited the museum. The operation has been successful and the museum was lucky with summer staff as before. The museum is open every day of the week in September and October. From November until the end of March, the museum will be open every weekday from 10 – 16.
Museum work and education
The activity of Hvalaskóli held its place in the spring days and students from the oldest year of Tunga, as well as the 2nd and 5th grade of Borgarhólskóli, attended the Whale Museum. As usual, the whale museum invited the 2nd class to a beach trip in Eyvíkurfjörður. A harvest festival was held on June 5, where an exhibition of students' works was opened.
The annual whale conference was held for the fourth time on July 21 and was well attended. Speakers included Dr. Tom Amakatsu, Dr. Marianne Rasmussen and Francoise Breton and the talks were more interesting than each other.
A museum weekend in the Þingeyjar counties was held in late summer. There, museums and exhibitions in Þingeyjar counties offered a varied program from Thursday to Sunday. The whale museum offered family film screenings and an open house. The films Free Willy, with the Icelandic killer whale Keikó in the main role, and In the Heart of the Sea, which is based on the famous story of Moby Dick, were shown.
There are many projects ahead at the museum this winter. The Whale Museum will set up an approved registration system for all of the museum's items, but the museum received funding for the project from the Museum Fund earlier this year. Preparations will then begin for the Whale Museum's anniversary celebration, but in 2018 it will be 20 years since the museum's official opening. An auspicious program is planned for that occasion. There are also countless maintenance projects at the museum of various kinds.
Extensive construction work in the basement
The first phase of construction in the basement of the Whale Museum was completed this spring. Due to external water leakage inside the museum building in the basement, it turned out to be necessary to replace the soil, pour a new floor and strengthen the load-bearing wall. Considerable costs were incurred as a result, but the construction work was unavoidable since the basement was unusable due to the leak.
Bearing capacity, demolition and exterior
Following the sale of the Whale Museum of part of the ground floor to Steinsteypis ehf, it soon became clear that the load-bearing capacity of the building was very poor. Bearing supports were damaged in the part that used to house cold storage, and the building had to be significantly strengthened with concrete repairs. That project went well, but it turned out to be costly, as expected. In the very next few weeks, the extensions to the Whale Museum's building facing north and belonging to the cold storage activities will be removed. With this, the building site of the museum will expand in the future. The Whale Museum and Steinsteypir have hired an architect to design the building's exterior, and the goal is to have construction (painting, masonry repairs, etc.) completed by next summer.
