2023-10-04 04:35:10
The window is short for hunting cetaceans whose horns can reach three meters in length: the largest fjord in the world, on the east coast of Greenland, is only free of its ice for one month a year, during the arctic summer.
Initiated by his grandfather, Peter Arqe-Hammeken, knows everything about the art of boat hunting with guns and harpoons for narwhals, whose meat is at the heart of Inuit culture.
But the tranquility essential to its activity is frequently disturbed by cruise ships which come to sail between the icebergs to show tourists this still miraculously wild region.
This summer, around sixty, from simple sailboats to enormous liner, frequented the turquoise waters of the village of Ittoqqortoormiit, some 500 km from the nearest human colony.
The tranquility necessary for Inuit hunters disturbed by tourist boats in the Scoresby fjord near Ittoqqortoormiit, August 18, 2023PHOTO AFP / Olivier MORIN
At the turn of the century there were almost no cruise ships. Today many venture far inside the fjord.
“A week ago, hunters were trying to catch narwhals there and two boats were heading towards them,” said Peter Arqe-Hammeken. “It’s one thing for them to show up in town. But for them to come to where we hunt is not good.”
The 37-year-old man is worried: the noise from the boats frightens the wildlife and further complicates the lives of Inuit hunters, who are already endangered.
– Reduction of hunting grounds –
“Hunters make a living from hunting here. They have children, a life…” he says.
Preserving a traditional way of life in Ittoqqortoormiit, 350 inhabitants, is increasingly difficult. August 17, 2023AFP PHOTO / Olivier MORIN
But preserving a traditional way of life in Ittoqqortoormiit, 350 inhabitants, is increasingly difficult.
The population must face the combined effects of global warming – in the Arctic temperatures are rising four times faster than the global average – and even distant human activity.
The narwhal is becoming increasingly rare there. As warming waters reduce its habitat and food, scientists are now calling for a ban on the hunting of this vulnerable species.
The restrictions imposed over the past twenty years and the ban on exporting its twisted tusk have not been enough to halt the fall in its population. Narwhal catches no longer even reach the level of the latest quotas for 2021.
The legendary hunter Hjelmer Hammeken in the port of Ittoqqortoormiit, August 18, 2023PHOTO AFP / Olivier MORIN
The weakening of the ice floes makes it more difficult to track seals when they come to the surface to breathe through the holes they build in the ice.
“The ice is disappearing much faster than before. In the past, there was always ice in summer,” says Jørgen Juulut Danielsen, teacher and former mayor of the village.
The Elders told stories of prosperous hunts just outside the village. From now on, you have to go deep into the fjord to find prey.
While the reduction in snowfall limits dog sledding and muskox hunting in winter…
“Thirty years ago there were plenty of hunters,” says Peter Arqe-Hammeken. “Today there are only ten or twelve.”
The proceeds from hunting bring income, food and nutrition to the population of Ittoqqortoormiit. The hunter Peter Arqe-Hammeken, August 18, 2023PHOTO AFP / Olivier MORIN
The narwhal, the seal, the polar bear, “what we hunt is fundamental to our culture,” explains Mette Pike Barselajsen, head of the Ittoqqortoormiit tourist office.
Nothing grows here. The village, one of the most isolated in the world, is used to living without outside help; its high-priced supermarket is only supplied by cargo ship once or twice a year.
The proceeds from hunting provide the population with income, food and clothing.
With seal skin we make boots, with polar bear fur pants worn in winter by hunters and during religious ceremonies.
Their meat, like the famous muktuk made from narwhal skin, is a major part of the diet which provides the proteins necessary to survive the long months of polar night.
“It’s essential that it comes from the animals that we hunt here,” continues Ms. Barselajsen.
Alarming levels of “perennial pollutants” have been found in the blood of Ittoqqortoormiit Inuit who eat seal and polar bear meat. August 17, 2023AFP PHOTO / Olivier MORIN
But in July, a Lancet Planetary Health study showed that the Inuit of Ittoqqortoormiit “who are accustomed to consuming seal and polar bear meat” had alarming levels of PFAS (permanent substances) in their blood. polyfluoroalkylated) likely to cause immune problems.
“Eternal pollutants”, massively present in everyday life (food packaging, textiles, pesticides, etc.) which come from far away, arriving by atmospheric and marine routes in the Arctic food chain.
– Last chance tourism –
These difficulties have led some hunters – who no longer have a market to sell bear skins outside the island since an EU embargo – to start fishing for Greenland halibut, explains Mr. Danielsen the former mayor of the village.
Hunters from Ittoqqortoormiit in difficulty are turning to tourism, explains Mette Pike Barselajsen, head of the tourist office. August 18, 2023AFP PHOTO / Olivier MORIN
Others turn to tourism.
Planted on the rocky peninsula overlooking the Scoresby Strait and surrounded by glaciers, the multicolored houses of Ittoqqortoormiit evoke a postcard landscape.
The long-quiet trails are now crisscrossed by groups of cruise passengers taking selfies with bear skins hanging outside houses or seal carcasses in the harbor.
Ittoqqortoormiit and its unlikely location on the front lines of climate change attract visitors eager to experience traditional culture before it disappears.
In Ittoqqortoormiit, a traditional culture threatened with disappearance. August 19, 2023AFP PHOTO / Olivier MORIN
“It’s more special than many places,” explains Nicholas Finnis from New Zealand.
To make ends meet, some hunters offer sled tours, guided tours or boat shuttles.
“It’s a big boost for hunters to have income from tourism,” says Ms. Barselajsen, who manages the local travel agency Nanu Travel.
A cruise can cost up to 20,000 euros per person. Until now, due to a lack of suitable reception structures, the tourist windfall mainly benefited foreign companies. But from January 2024, local authorities will be able to levy a tax on cruise passengers.
Tourists return to their cruise ship after a visit to Ittoqqortoormiit, August 20, 2023PHOTO AFP / Olivier MORIN
Quite a dilemma for the people of Ittoqqortoormiit.
“Tourism is really seen as a source of income that can improve living conditions,” underlines geographer Marianna Leoni of the Finnish University of Oulu.
At the same time “it really threatens the traditional way of life, hunting and fishing, (…) which are the only means of subsistence for many”.
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