Insights from polar bears of the past
For her next print feature on polar bears in Greenland, Mads St Clair, Oceanographic’s current Storyteller in Residence sat down with Aka Simonsen, a Greenlandic archaeologist, Inuit cultural educator and UNESCO site manager for the Kujataa World Heritage Site in southern Greenland, for a discussion on climate, colonialism and insights from polar bears of the past.
Mads St Clair: Aka, thanks for sitting down with me today. Let’s start at the beginning. You mentioned that the climate has been increasingly unstable and that this has affected polar bear sightings in Southern Greenland. What are you observing here?
Aka Simonsen: “We are in an unstable time, and we don’t know how long it will take before it stabilises again. As the Agricultural Council Chair and site manager of Kujataa UNESCO World Heritage, I work with sheep farmers, and we discuss how the weather changes year on year. The weather is very unstable. We never know if we’re going to have a rainy or dry summer. This year, drift ice – ice that breaks up in northeast Greenland and drifts down the east coast – came in early, from February until July, blocking all the seaways. This meant that we got so many polar bears in the area this year as they tend to arrive with the drift ice. I’ve studied the ancient polar bear traps that the Norse built to keep the bears away from their livestock; they placed them where polar bears typically come up onto the land. They have a path going back to South East Greenland and I’ve noticed that polar bears are still migrating or walking the same route as they did in ancient times.”
Mads St Clair: So, the Norse used to build traps to stop polar bears from approaching their sheep and villages?
Aka Simonsen: “Yes, they built what I call ‘carnivore traps’ for wolves, polar bears, foxes and even wolverines. Due to ecological changes, we no longer have caribou in west Greenland, so the wolves disappeared along with them. My theory is that wolves need at least one antler species and other smaller prey like Arctic hare and foxes and birds to survive. Today, we still find some preserved traps for polar bears, and smaller ones for wolves and even smaller ones for foxes. If a polar bear enters them, a door falls, trapping it inside. Fox traps were built similarly, just smaller. Some of these traps are still intact today.”
Mads St Clair St Clair: And it’s from the cold weather, they’ve been able to stay intact for so long?
Aka Simonsen: “Yes, because the Norse were a stationary culture, they took their time to build them. They were investing in these structures to protect their animals, their families. But the Inuit, who were nomadic or semi-nomadic, built more quickly since they never knew if they’d return to the same place the following winter. That’s how I can distinguish between the two cultures – the Norse structures are sturdily built, while Inuit structures are often a bit wobbly. The shapes are more or less the same. We know that the Norse were dealing with the same problem we face now, with the polar bears following the same routes today. The Norse wouldn’t have gone to the effort to build these traps unless they really needed them, because it takes so much time and investment. If you didn’t need it, you wouldn’t build it, because it takes energy. Now, we’re seeing many polar bears coming down to southwest Greenland with the drift ice.”
Mads St Clair: It’s incredible to have a window back in time to see that they had a similar issue with polar bears by observing them taking the same routes today. Would you say there’s a bigger abundance of polar bears in South West Greenland than you’ve seen before in your lifetime?
Aka Simonsen: “Yes, when I was a child, we would rarely hear about polar bears coming to west Greenland. Only occasionally we would see a hunter shooting a polar bear and bringing it into town. We might see polar bears now and again, but usually not very often. This year, however, we have had so many polar bears.”
Mads St Clair: Are these increased numbers of polar bears also a concern for sheep farmers today?
Aka Simonsen: “Yes, it’s a big problem. We had a polar bear near a sheep farming area recently, and we know it was killing and eating sheep. It stayed in the area and was very fat because sheep are easy prey, and they finally managed to kill the bear after about a year. Farmers are now carrying guns, even in their tractors, because if you scare away a bear from one farm, it just becomes someone else’s problem at the next one.”
More Despatches: From the Field
Mads St Clair: It’s incredible that you’re seeing this historical parallel. With increasing polar bear numbers, are farmers considering other precautions beyond carrying guns?
Aka Simonsen: “They started carrying guns more this summer. If a bear is chased from one sheep farm, it’ll just go to the next. It’s a problem because it doesn’t actually solve anything long term. One of the farmer’s tractors broke down in the middle of nowhere, and was a kind of situation. But a neighbour was driving by and she saw a polar bear going towards the man and started shouting and honking the horn. So the polar bear was startled and ran away. They looked for the polar bear after but didn’t find it.”
Mads St Clair: Were the sheep originally brought over by the Norse settlers?
Aka Simonsen: “Yes, by the end of the 18th or early 19th century. But then at the beginning of the 20th Century, there was a famine in South Greenland. The Norwegians went after the whales and they almost went extinct. Then the whalers started hunting for seals by the Norwegian coast. It affected south, south East and Southwest Greenland, because we have migrated seals from the Norwegian Sea. The Danish government wanted to provide an alternative food source, so they introduced livestock like goats and sheep, which were doing well in places like Iceland and the Faroe Islands. They imported sheep from Iceland, and it worked well. However, bad winters with several snow and ice layers killed a large portion of the sheep population. So, the government introduced regulations requiring sheep farmers to have stables and enough fodder for them in case that happened again. Importing sheep meant also that the dogs, the hunters’ dogs, could no longer roam free because they went after sheep. That’s why they were banned from South Greenland, all the way to Sisimiut area, where we have the Arctic Circle.”
Mads St Clair: With the increase in polar bears, is there also a safety risk for people in the communities?
Aka Simonsen: “Yes, definitely. Being a sheep farmer means you live right in nature. Parents used to let children play outside, but now they don’t want them to play outside any longer. Earlier this year, we had a polar bear come into the town where I live, passing by the school just 20 minutes before children would have been walking to school. It even ran right in front of my office. People were afraid to send their children to school afterward.”
Mads St Clair: Did someone shoot the polar bear, or was it chased away?
Aka Simonsen: “It was shot by a hunter. Each year, I think the hunters in the southern region can shoot about five polar bears, but many locals and farmers want the quota to be increased to around ten now due to the increasing numbers.”
Mads St Clair: Do you think people might start using traps again? Could history offer a solution here, or is there a better way?
Aka Simonsen: “Greenland’s wildlife laws protect animals, so trapping them is considered inhumane and isn’t allowed. Relocating them would require helicopters and funding we don’t have. South Greenland has only about 7,000 inhabitants and we already pay 42 to 43% of our salary in taxes. We can’t afford relocation programmes, so for now, the main thing we do is chase them away or, unfortunately, shoot them.”
Mads St Clair: With Greenland’s subsistence culture, it’s likely that if polar bears are shot, people will be able to utilise the animal, right?
Aka Simonsen: “Yes, they will eat it and use its skin too. In Northeast Greenland, WWF employs people specifically to chase polar bears away because they see them almost every day on the sea ice by the towns. They are having success at chasing away most of the polar bears, but in South Greenland, if we chase a bear away, it just becomes someone else’s problem down the road. We haven’t found our solution yet.”
Mads St Clair: What other changes have you noticed in Greenland over the years? You were born and raised in South Greenland, so you must’ve seen these shifts firsthand.
Aka Simonsen: “Growing up, we had a lot of snow in winter and could go skiing. In the 1980s and 1990s, the snow was reliable, but from the 2000s onward, the weather has become much more unpredictable. My son, Ivic, was born while we were sheep farmers, and we had to invest in irrigation systems. But we didn’t have much money back then, so it was challenging. There have been many changes in society too; we used to have a more collective approach, but it’s becoming more individualistic. We’re still more community-focused than places like Denmark, but even here, it’s shifting, which I think is a pity.”
Mads St Clair: It seems like Danish cultural norms still hold a lot of influence. How does this affect Greenlandic culture and opportunities for locals?
Aka Simonsen: “Danish culture still dominates here, which affects job opportunities and social standing. When I started my job, I tried writing emails in Greenlandic, especially when I was communicating with other Greenlanders. But even then, they didn’t want me to; they wanted everything in Danish. Even today, speaking Danish with a Greenlandic accent can impact how seriously you’re taken. Many Greenlanders are trained to support Danish supervisors, only to see those supervisors rise in the system faster. Looking like I do and having a Greenlandic name, it is difficult to get a job in Denmark. I have had so many difficulties just having conversations with the government, even with regards to tourism.”
Mads St Clair: It’s sad to see that younger generations still face these struggles. How do you see Greenland moving forward, especially for youth?
Aka Simonsen: “I’m still often seen as someone stupid or lesser. That’s still a problem. I’m very Greenlandic… that’s just who I am. But if I don’t act as a Dane, like sit a certain way or or act the right way, I’m not taken seriously. It has been difficult for me. That’s part of why I wanted to rewrite history books, but I don’t have the time or energy right now. Maybe one day. Our history books still romanticise the Danes as ‘good colonists’. Take Rasmussen, for example – he romanticised the idea of being Inuk or Eskimo, a term we don’t even use anymore, as some kind of ‘nature creature’. People today still ask us if we live in igloos or ride polar bears to school. There’s still such a long way to go. I was hoping my children wouldn’t experience that, but they are.”
Mads St Clair: You’re also heavily involved in sustainable tourism at the UNESCO site. There is a very fine line between promoting tourism for the economy and ruining the environment, so how do you think tourism is impacting Greenland, especially with more cruise ships arriving?
Aka Simonsen: “Tourism can help the local economy, but it’s causing significant damage to the UNESCO site. We need the money because our places are being destroyed by too many cruise ships coming in and not leaving any money. Paths are eroding and we don’t have enough funds to repair them. The cruise ships do pay 120 DKR for each passenger to walk through The UNESCO site, but most cruise ship revenue goes to the municipality, not the UNESCO site. For two years, I’ve advocated for a visitor fee that would directly support conservation, but it hasn’t been implemented. We already have too many cruise ships coming to South Greenland. Throughout July and August, we have at least one, sometimes two, cruise ships coming in every day. With the new airport [in Ilulissat], we expect tourism to increase, but we need funding to protect these areas.”
For more Despatches, images and more, follow our 2024 Storyteller in Residence’s journey here or over on Instagram.
Printed editions
Current issue
Back issues
Back Issues
Issue 39 Special Edition: OPY2024
Back Issues
Issue 37 Wild Alaska: River & Ocean
Enjoy so much more from Oceanographic Magazine by becoming a subscriber.
A range of subscription options are available.
