Inuit Hunters Blame Cruise Ships As Narwhal Disappear

Ittoqqortoormiit, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Oct, 2023) To hunt the narwhal, whose long tusk was the unicorn horn of medieval myth, you need absolute silence.

So much so that the Indigenous hunters of the Scoresby Sound in eastern Greenland forbid their children from throwing pebbles into the water lest they spook the spiral-tusked whales.

Taught to hunt by his grandfather, Peter Arqe-Hammeken, 37, tracks narwhal during the brief Arctic summer.

But they are getting rarer and rarer.

In this fjord brimming with icebergs, the quiet of the hunt has been broken by new arrivals -- cruise passengers rushing to see Inuit culture before it is too late.

This summer, around 60 vessels ranging from sailing boats to large cruise ships arrived at the village of Ittoqqortoormiit at the mouth of the fjord system -- the largest in the world -- in the month when it was free of ice.

While some view Arctic tourism as a means to reinvigorate this remote community around 500 kilometres (311 miles) from the nearest settlement, others worry it could destroy the last surviving Inuit hunting societies.

"A week ago there were hunters out there, trying to catch narwhals. But there were a couple of ships going into them," Arqe-Hammeken told AFP, who said cruise ships were scaring off the wildlife.

"When they come to the village, it's okay. But when they come to the hunting ground, that's not good."

In the swiftly warming Arctic, where temperatures are rising up to four times faster than the global average, the Inuit are threatened at every turn.