Karl Kirstian KRUSE - Mayor of the commune, Hunter and fisherman

Niaqornat - Latitude 70 47 NR - Longitude 053 39 W

65 inhabitants

Remarks collected in July 2009

Niaqornat has always been a community focused on fishing and hunting. Until recently, fishing was our main source of revenue.

Royal Greenland, the company which managed our fish-processing plant, was of the opinion that, in spite of the quality of the catch, our installation was not economical, mainly due to our far away location. The plant therefore closed, and that constitutes a major handicap. Our fishermen are obliged to deliver their fish to the neighbouring village. Today we are looking for a private solution, but so far nothing has turned up.

In 2003, we had a good winter, with ice of a satisfactory thickness. The ice was there from January until the end of May.

That was followed until 2008 by a succession of very bad years, where the sea did not freeze until March. When it finally froze, the ice was not very thick, and it was uneven and dangerous in places. Underneath the ice, stronger currents than before gave rise to open areas which did not freeze at all. We had to wait until this year, 2009, to have a real winter with conditions a lot better than in 2003. The conditions are not stable, and no one can say how next winter will be. From an economic point of view, in the last few years Europe has greatly increased the regulations relating to the importation of the animals which we hunt, even when certain species are not under threat. Taking this together with the bad weather conditions, the recent years have been particularly difficult for everybody. Our two main activities are threatened, and if things don’t change, some of the inhabitants will be obliged to leave the village.

Given the limited opportunities, hunting represents a minor activity. Our hunters have been obliged to help the biologists to study the narwhals. There are certainly possible openings with tourism, but we are sadly lacking in knowledge on this subject. Many whales pass by our coast. They are in fact increasing in numbers, except for the belugas, which have disappeared. We don’t know the reason for this, but it is clear that something has changed, and that their habits have been modified.