Ocean temperatures around Greenland's coasts have risen sharply in recent years. As a result, several fish species common to the warmer coastal waters of Northern Europe are now appearing around Greenland, according to a report from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.
"I'd like to show you an angler that has just come in," says marine biologist Kaj Sünksen. He takes out an angler from a box. The fish's wide smile has stiffened in the freezing room of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.
The angler is one of five species of fish that normally live in the warmer waters of northern Europe but are now caught in Greenlanders' tackle. Their presence, according to researchers, is probably due to the warmer water around Greenland.
The increase in sea temperature here in recent years is mainly a result of natural variations in water circulation in the North Atlantic. The warm Gulf Stream has a branch that passes Greenland, and this ocean current has grown stronger in recent years.
"Can we expect to fish more anglers around Greenland from now on? I cannot read the future, so I cannot really say," answers Mads Hvid Ribergaard. He is an oceanographer at Denmark's Meteorological Institute and specialist in the ocean currents around Greenland.
"Perhaps the water will continue to get warmer or it can become colder," he replies. It depends on chaotic systems that cannot be predicted today, according to Ribergaard.
This story is posted on Alaska Dispatch as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.