Thousands of Whales Surge into East Greenland as Ice Vanishes, Study Finds
Researchers say 4,000 humpbacks, 6,000 fin whales and 4,500 minke whales now feed there as capelin move north.
- In summer 2024, researchers documented roughly 4,000 humpbacks, 6,000 fin, and 4,500 minke whales in East Greenland, marking an unprecedented surge in temperate baleen whale populations.
- Warmer waters and retreating summer sea ice after 2000 prompted capelin to shift feeding grounds from Iceland to East Greenland, drawing the whales north.
- Mads Peter Heide-J, a whale biologist, noted that ship surveys recorded zero humpbacks before 2006, rising to more than 150 by 2024.
- These whales may consume roughly 1.1 million tons of prey during their four-month stay, potentially reshaping the food web as the region undergoes borealization.
- The region is becoming more Atlantic than Arctic in function, with recent tuna bycatch in local fisheries illustrating the rapid, climate-driven transformation of these northern waters.
30 Articles
30 Articles
Warming waters draw summer 'feeding frenzies' by whales off Greenland
The effects of global warming depend on species: The losers are legion, but a lucky few are winners. Now, researchers have shown that baleen whales are taking advantage of a newly opened-up fish bonanza in the Greenland Sea, ...
With the increase of the temperatures of the water the eastern coasts of the island, first inaccessible, are crowded by different species of large cetaceans in search of food. To make the cost is local fishing and native animals like narvals and beluga
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Study finds whales following fish north due to warming waters
Whales are taking advantage of a newly opened-up fish "bonanza" in the Greenland Sea.
The disappearance of ice in the eastern part of Greenland has allowed giant whales to occupy new areas, previously inaccessible, as a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. The research, carried out over decades, has recorded and filmed hundreds of whales of the world feeding on ice-free seas during summer periods. Among the species are the so-called fin whales, such as jubart whales, minke whales and common whales.
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