Climate change opens new territories for Arctic whales off Greenland

The ice seas in eastern Greenland are melting, allowing giant whales to enter areas that were not previously open to them.

This is the conclusion of a decades-long study in which researchers observed hundreds of the largest whales on Earth - including humpback whales, minke whales and fin whales - feeding in snow-free waters along the island's coast during the summer.

Historically, none of these giant marine mammals were known to frequent these areas, as snow prevented them from reaching coastal waters.

Today, as climate change has warmed the seas and melted the ice, whales have found a way to adapt.

Researchers see this result as “feeding seasons” in the Arctic for these whales, as part of a larger shift in the ocean ecosystem along the coast of eastern Greenland.

There is a dramatic change: ship-borne surveys in that area were unable to detect a single humpback whale there before 2006, while seven of these whales were spotted in 2007, reaching 150 in 2024.

From the summer of 2015 to 2024, systematic aerial surveys were conducted, and these studies monitored a group of giant baleen whales - a group that includes fin whales, minke whales and humpback whales - off the eastern coast of Greenland.

They combined this data with the tracks of 15 whales fitted with satellite trackers, and testimonies from Inuit hunters, to create a picture of what the lead researcher, Professor Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, described as “a major shift in the ecosystem”.

It is estimated that in the summer of 2024, the Greenland Sea received about four thousand humpback whales, six thousand fin whales, and six thousand minke whales.

In an interview with the BBC, Professor Heide-Jørgensen, a researcher at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, said that the changes that occurred in the region “are perhaps the most radical among the subarctic regions” that we can monitor.

This change is driven by rising sea temperatures and the availability of food, and whales also appear to be seeking food from fish, which in turn have moved to warmer waters off the eastern coast of Greenland.

Researchers estimate that these three types of whales eat at least 800,000 tons of fish and krill in one summer season.

It is not clear from this study whether this observed change reflects real growth in the numbers of these types of whales, or whether it is merely a change in their habitat.

Other experts the BBC spoke to expressed concern that the study suggests an influx of these animals from western Greenland, which is a sensitive issue in Greenland, where some whale species are hunted.

Studies indicate that these “opportunistic” baleen whales have shown an ability to adapt that qualifies them to benefit from this climate change.

However, this benefit will not extend to all whale species, as researcher Heide-Jørgensen points out, pointing out that some whales are in trouble, including narwhals and beluga whales, as they are now sharing their habitats with these other whales, or may be displaced from them.