In A Farewell to Greenland Wildlife, a book published in 2002, Kjeld Hansen, a Danish journalist makes a controversial indictment against the government and people of Greenland and their stewardship of the island¹s wildlife. In a direct style that pulls no punches the author describes severe declines in many important species on the huge island degraded in successive waves of hunting and fishing since the beginning of the 20th century. The book has sparked controversy not just because it documents extensive damage to the island¹s animals but because it places blame squarely on native Inuit hunters (and the Danish and Greenland governments for permitting the destruction).

Hansen focuses on several species of birds, fish and sea mammals for special attention. For instance, he says the Brünnich¹s Guillemot, an auk-like bird, has nearly been extirpated by excessive hunting and egg harvesting, and fishing practices that uselessly snare the birds in fishing gear. Hansen say that, though rare today in Greenland, the Brünnich¹s Guillemot was captured by the hundreds of thousands per year within living memory. Iceland and Canada, where Brünnich¹s Guillemot from Greenland summer, have recently put these birds on endangered species lists.

Hansen says that beluga whales, which were also once plentiful, have disappeared from many parts of western Greenland and will soon be completely gone. The common eider used to be abundant in West Greenland. He estimates that there were 110,000 breeding pairs of common eiders in the mid-19th century. Now, due to hunting and egg collecting, they are rarely seen. Moreover, cod stocks in Greenland¹s waters collapsed in the mid-1970s and have still not recovered. Salmon stocks were exhausted in the 1960s. By the same token, walruses have disappeared from all 16 haul-outs in western Greenland where the were found in the early 20th century. Now there are only two such on-shore haul-outs on the island.

Hansen says the problem results from a combination of factors including lax and poorly enforced wildlife protection rules, subsidies to hunters and the practice of ancient Inuit hunting traditions with modern technologies. Most controversial, Hansen takes issue with the notion that Inuit people, by virtue of their long heritage in Greenland, are necessarily good stewards of the Island¹s animals. He says that the modern motor boat, GPS satellite mapping devices and rifles have made professional and amateur hunters so lethal as to be threats to Greenland¹s wildlife.

More information about A Farewell to Greenland Wildlife can be found at www.greenland-wildlife.com/GreenlandWildlife/Greenlandindex.htm

	Walruses See photos of walrus on the beaches in Greenland.