’It’s too warm’: Greenland’s fishermen feel the climate heat

Fisherman Helgi Áargil no longer knows what to expect on Greenland ‘s fjords, where he spends up to five days at a time on his boat with his dog, Molly, and the ever-changing northern lights in the sky as company.

Last year, his boat got stuck in ice that broke off the nearby glacier. This year, it’s been very wet instead. His income is just as unpredictable. An outing could bring him around 100,000 Danish kroner or nothing at all.

The Arctic’s rapidly changing climate is bringing more questions for Greenland, the semiautonomous territory of Denmark that’s been shaken by U.S. President Donald Trump’s interest in owning it.

While Trump’s approach to Greenland has shifted, the world has been unable to slow the effects of climate change. The Arctic is warming faster than any other region in the world, driven by the burning of oil, gas and coal.

What that means for the fishing industry that largely drives Greenland’s economy is unknown. Fishing accounts for up to 95% of exports, many to the territory’s biggest market, China, along with the United States, Japan and Europe.

Wrapped in a wool sweater against the freezing wind, Áargil explained how he fishes for halibut and cod. Other top catches are shrimp and snow crab, which including legs can reach more than a meter long.

Traditional ice fishermen who make up half the local industry are seeing the most dramatic changes to the way they fish.

Fishing has shaped Greenland’s communities. The harbor where fishermen return to sell their catch is at the heart of every town or village. Before heading out, some fishermen pick up boxes from the island’s fishing companies to pack their catch which, in the capital of Nuuk, is winched from the boat to the fish factory.

Toke Binzer, the chief executive of the island’s single biggest employer, Royal Greenland, said he is increasingly worried about a future with greatly diminished sea ice. That could push traditional fishermen towards larger communities and into the ranks of commercial fishing.

The challenge now is to support traditional fishermen when there is sometimes “too much ice to sail, too little to go out on,” Binzer said. Already, that unpredictability has caused a “huge” problem.

Royal Greenland already loans fishermen money to buy a boat, which they repay from selling their catch, Binzer said.

If everyone turns to fishing from boats, that could help economically but lead to overfishing, said Boris Worm, an expert in marine biodiversity at Dalhousie University in Canada.

In Greenland, there are already signs of too much fishing close to shore as halibut are getting smaller, Binzer said. Worm agreed, calling it a classic sign of overfishing as the bigger fish are caught and the smaller, younger ones are left.

On his boat near Nuuk, Áargil considered another challenge: Warm weather is making some fish harder to catch as they go deeper in search of colder waters.

“It’s too warm,” he said, looking at the hills around the fjord. “I don’t know where the fish is going, but there’s not so much.”

Options beyond fishing remain few in Greenland. Tourism is increasing but far from making up a significant part of the economy.