Fishing in Ilulissat

My walk to the ice in Kangerlussuaq left me well-rested(mentally) to continue my interviews and adventures in Ilulissat. Ilulissat sits at the head of the worlds largest outlet glacier (outlet glacier = glacier that drains an ice sheet/field, usually to the ocean), Jakobshavn Isbræ (also known as Ilulissat Isfjord). Long story short, the glacier has retreated rapidly in the last few decades and has become the poster child for global warming. The monstrous icebergs clogging the water surrounding the fjord and the area's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site make Ilulissat THE tourist destination in Greenland. If you've been a tourist in Greenland, chances are you went to Ilulissat.

My first trip to Greenland in May/June 2006, I was fortunate enough visit Ilulissat as part of a radar mission to 'sound' (determine the depth/thickness) the Jakobshavn outlet glacier. This second/return trip had me eager to see the changes (both with the glacier and the community) in the past two years. Since my 2006 visit, Ilulissat had seen a who's who of world political leaders visit to "witness climate change in action". The political fanfare and media attention contributed to an already active tourist industry and word had it that Ilulissat was undergoing rapid change.

"Word" turned out to be correct, as the Ilulissat I left in 2006 differed in many ways from the one I arrived to this July 2008. Several new swanky hotels, a maintained campground, the merger of several tourist companies into the monopolistic beast "World of Greenland Tourism", even a micro-brewery, just to name a few changes. And the relative silence. In 2006 there were ~8,000 sled dogs in Ilulissat that gave the city it's own yipping and howling soundtrack. Apparently incessant barking dogs are bad for tourism as, combined with shorter winters, the sled dog population has decreased by almost half. The shorter winters meaning less demand for transport (via sled dog) to the fjord for fishing/hunting.

A faint trail that I hiked to the ice fjord on in 2006 was now a major tourist highway, with several different tour groups in route, including tours in French, German, Danish, and English. Pictures of this trail and other noticeable changes to be posted at a later date.







My initial days in Ilulissat were spent tracking down contacts, meeting with the local museum about collaboration with my project, and going out seal hunting west-coast style (lots of shooting, high-speed pursuit, and limited seals). My main contact then had family visit and thus was otherwise occupied. I then struggled for a few days trying to track down "phantom" contacts. Eventually I ended posting up at the docks, just waiting and watching as fishermen came and went, attempting to arrange fishing trips in broken Danish (from both sides, my own and the fishermen). Strangely enough, I ended up going out on a fishing trip with what I thought was one of my contacts. I later learned that this person had the same name as one of my contacts (what are the chances, in a town of 5,000, that I meet the 'other' Christian Aqqaluk Jensen? And that he is willing to take me out fishing? And the entire time I'm talking to him like I know him because I assume we've communicated prior, hahaha, he was a good sport and undoubtedly thought I was crazy).






The fishing, much like the hunting, had an unpredictable timeline. We went out in mid-afternoon and set a line that had 1,500 baited hooks on it. I missed the baiting part, but I imagine that after the first 9, the next 1491 go pretty quickly. I never got an "opportunity" to bait and disprove my theory...but I haven't lost any sleep over missing out. After setting the line, we boated back into Ilulissat, waited four hours, then returned to collect at least 300 very large halibut, several red fish, a few rays, and various other strange looking fish. Collecting the fish took around six hours and my hands got just as cold as they ever did while on the ice. We returned to Ilulissat around 3AM, covered in fish guts and completely exhausted. Aqqa then would get up and do it all over again the next day (of course rebaiting 1500 hooks). Unbelievable.