Greenland authorities under heavy pressure to allow more eider and guillemot hunting

After a century of over hunting and extensive decreases in Greenlandic colonies of Brunnich's Guillemot (Thick-billed Murre) and Common Eider, the Greenland Home Rule issued a government notice last December banning hunting of these species after 15 February in accordance with international recommendations not to allow hunting after mid-winter. The notice was prepared during several meetings involving hunters' organisations, BirdLife Denmark's local group in Greenland etc. during which significant concessions were made to hunters' interests. In spite of this, the professional hunters in Southwest Greenland have now put the authorities under such heavy pressure that authorities propose to allow one more month of hunting this year. This will no doubt lead to similar pressure from other parts of Greenland, where the new regulations will hit hunters even more, and consequently undermine the whole attempt to reduce hunting pressure on these highly over hunted populations.

To understand the seriousness of the problems, a few examples may illustrate the situation. In central West Greenland, the colonies of Brunnich's Guillemot have declined from around half a million birds to less than 10,000. Colonies, that used to hold tens of thousands, and in some cases even 100,000 birds are now empty or reduced to a few hundred. Similarly, several colonies with thousands of nesting Common Eiders are gone. This has been documented in many papers and reports i.e. from the governmental nature research institute in Nuuk, Greenland. Several factors may have contributed to the declines (drowning in fishing nets, oil etc.), but all studies single out hunting in late winter, spring and summer as the main reason. This is i.e. illustrated by the fact, that there is a close correlation between the reductions of the individual colonies and their distance to the nearest town or settlement.

Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of Brunnich's Guillemots, Common and King Eider from Canada, Iceland and Svalbard winter in Southwest Greenland and may suffer from over hunting as well. The loosening of the new regulations will also counteract the need for reduced hunting on these populations.

© Proact 2002