Disko Bay ( kl, Qeqertarsuup tunua; da, DiskobugtenChristensen, N.O. & al.
Elections in Greenland
. ''Arctic Circular'', Vol. 4 (1951), pp. 83–85. Op. cit. "Northern News". ''Arctic'', Vol. 5, No. 1 (Mar 1952), pp. 58–59.) is a large bay on the western coast of

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

. The bay constitutes a wide southeastern inlet of Baffin Bay.

Geography

To the south the coastline is complicated with multiple waterways of skerries and small islands in the

Aasiaat Aasiaat () or Ausiait, formerly Egedesminde, is a town in the Qeqertalik municipality in western Greenland, located in the heart of Aasiaat Archipelago at the southern end of Disko Bay. With a population of 3,069 as of 2020, it is Greenland's fo ...

archipelago.

Qasigiannguit Qasigiannguit (), formerly Christianshåb, is a town located in western Greenland on the southeastern shore of Disko Bay in the Qeqertalik municipality. With 1,081 inhabitants in 2020, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland. The main indu ...

and

Ilimanaq Ilimanaq (), formerly Claushavn, is a settlement in Avannaata municipality in western Greenland. It had 53 inhabitants in 2020. The modern name of the village is Kalaallisut for "Place of Expectations". Geography Ilimanaq is located on the ...

are the main settlements in the southeastern inlet, just south of the outflow of

Ilulissat Icefjord Ilulissat Icefjord ( kl, Ilulissat Kangerlua) is a fjord in western Greenland. Located 250 km north of the Arctic Circle, the Ilulissat Icefjord runs west from the Greenland ice sheet to Disko Bay just south of Ilulissat town. Ilulissat Icefj ...

. From the north the bay is bounded by

Qeqertarsuaq Qeqertarsuaq () is a port and town in Qeqertalik municipality, located on the south coast of Disko Island on the west coast of Greenland. Founded in 1773, the town is now home to a campus of the University of Copenhagen known as Arctic Station. ...

, the largest island on the western coast. North of Ilulissat and west of

Alluttoq Island Alluttoq Island ( da, Arveprinsen Ejland) is a large , uninhabitedSullorsuaq Strait separating Qeqertarsuaq from

Nuussuaq Peninsula Nuussuaq Peninsula (, old spelling: ''Nûgssuaq'') is a large (180x48 km) peninsula in western Greenland. Geography The waters around the peninsula are that of Baffin Bay. To the south and southwest the peninsula is bounded by Disko Bay, ...

.Nuussuaq, Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 It is the largest open bay in western Greenland, measuring 150 km north to south and 100 km east to west. It has an average depth of 400 m and average water temperature of 3.5 °C. Although, in winter it drops to −1.75 °C and then rises up to 12 °C in summer.Morten Meldgaard Although, this is changing, as it has been gradually warming up since 1997. File:Disko-bay.jpg, Growlers and bergy bits float in the bay all year round File:The Disko Bay Qeqertarsuaq greenland.jpg, Ilulissat/Jakobshavn File:City of Ilimanaq, Greenland.jpg, Ilimanaq File:Scenic view of Greenland icebergs in Baffin Bay in Disko Bay 07.jpg, Disko bay

History

Disko Bay has been an important location for centuries. Its coastline was first encountered by Europeans when Erik the Red started a settlement in 985 AD on the more habitable western coast of Greenland. The two settlements, called the

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

and

Western settlement The Western Settlement ( non, Vestribygð ) was a group of farms and communities established by Norsemen from Iceland around 985 in medieval Greenland. Despite its name, the Western Settlement was more north than west of its companion Eastern Set ...

s, were sustenance economies that survived on animal husbandry and farming. Soon after the Western settlement was established, the

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pr ...

travelled up the coast during the summer thaw and discovered Disko Bay. Their interest in this bay was due to its rich resources:

walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...

es for

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

for their pelts, and

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

for a variety of materials. These products became the main source of income for the Greenlandic settlers who traded with

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, the British Isles, and mainland Europe. Without these resources the settlements would probably not have lasted as long as they did. It is uncertain when the

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

first started venturing into Disko Bay, but the

Saqqaq Saqqaq (old spelling: ''Sarqaq'') is a settlement in the Avannaata municipality in western Greenland. Founded in 1755 as Solsiden, Saqqaq had 132 inhabitants in 2020. The village's Kalaallisut name is a translation of the Danish meaning "Sunny Si ...

were present there between 2400 and 900 BC. Norse accounts describe the area as uninhabited when they first explored it. Norse accounts document an eventual trade arrangement with the Inuit who came from the north and west. For a time, both parties made peaceful use of the bay. Later accounts report

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

and

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

s on both sides. However, the primary reason for the abandonment of the Greenlandic settlements was the advent of the Little Ice Age that started in the 15th century. There was such an extreme shift in

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various Conversion of units of temperature, temp ...

that Disko Bay became inaccessible even in the warmer summer months, thereby destroying the livelihood of the Greenlandic Norse. Even the Eastern settlement, which was below the Arctic Circle, became too cold for habitation. From that time until Danish colonization in the 18th century, the Inuit controlled the Disko Bay area although English and Dutch whalers sometimes visited the area after it was charted during John Davis's third Greenland expedition in 1587.

Wildlife

Panoramic_views_of_Icebergs_off_Greenland_in_the_Greenland_Sea_45

Tail of Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae in Disko Bay Greenland - Buiobuone 02

It is home to a wide range of species due to the nutrient-rich waters. This includes benthic and

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

fish, such as capelin ('' Mallotus villosus'') and cod (''

Gadus morhua The Atlantic cod (''Gadus morhua'') is a benthopelagic fish of the family Gadidae, widely seafood, consumed by humans. It is also Commercial fishing, commercially known as cod or codling.Pagophilus groenlandicus'') and hooded seal ('' Cystophora cristata'') and ringed ('' Pusa hispida'') and bearded seal (''

Erignathus barbatus The bearded seal (''Erignathus barbatus''), also called the square flipper seal, is a medium-sized pinniped that is found in and near to the Arctic Ocean. It gets its generic name from two Greek words (''eri'' and ''gnathos'') that refer to its h ...

''). The bay is home during spring time to bowhead (''

Balaena mysticetus ''Balaena'' is a genus of cetacean (whale) in the family Balaenidae. ''Balaena'' is considered a monotypic genus, as it has only a single extant species, the bowhead whale (''B. mysticetus''). It was named in 1758 by Linnaeus, who at the time con ...

'') and humpback (''

Megaptera novaeangliae The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The humpb ...

'') whales, as well as Pilot (''

Globicephala melas The long-finned pilot whale (''Globicephala melas'') is a large species of oceanic dolphin. It shares the genus '' Globicephala'' with the short-finned pilot whale (''Globicephala macrorhynchus''). Long-finned pilot whales are known as such bec ...

''), killer whales (''

Orcinus orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pat ...

'') and narwhal (''

Monodon monoceros The narwhal, also known as a narwhale (''Monodon monoceros''), is a medium-sized toothed whale that possesses a large "tusk" from a protruding canine tooth. It lives year-round in the Arctic waters around Greenland, Canada and Russia. It is o ...

''). On the shores, various birds can be found such as

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

eider duck Eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks, and some other ducks and geese, are used to fill pillows and quil ...

guillemot Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alcidae or auk family (part of the order Charadriiformes). In British use, the term comprises two genera: '' Uria'' and ''Cepphus''. In North America the ''Uria'' species ...

kittiwake The kittiwakes (genus ''Rissa'') are two closely related seabird species in the gull family Laridae, the black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') and the red-legged kittiwake (''Rissa brevirostris''). The epithets "black-legged" and "red-l ...

s, cormorants and

fulmar The fulmars are tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family consists of two extant species and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on ...

s. Animals such as

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in ...

es,

hares Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...

and

ptarmigan ''Lagopus'' is a small genus of birds in the grouse subfamily commonly known as ptarmigans (). The genus contains three living species with numerous described subspecies, all living in tundra or cold upland areas. Taxonomy and etymology The ge ...

can be found around the bay.

References

Literary references

*Disko Troop, a central character in

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's novel ''

Captains Courageous ''Captains Courageous: A Story of the Grand Banks'' is an 1897 novel by Rudyard Kipling that follows the adventures of fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon, after he is saved from drowning by a Portuguese f ...

'', was born on a fishing boat in the vicinity of Disko Bay and subsequently named after it.

Sources

*Brown, Berit ed. ''Nordic Experiences: Exploration of Scandinavian Cultures''. Greenwood Press. Westport, CT. 1997. *Diamond, Jared. ''Collapse''. Penguin Press Ltd. London, England. 2005. *Enterline, James Robert. ''Erikson, Eskimos, and Columbus''. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, MD. 2002. *Haywood, John. ''The Encyclopedia of the Viking Age''. Thanes and Hudson, Inc. New York, NY. 2000. *Ingstad, Helge. Friis, Erik trans. ''Westward to Vinland: The Discovery of Pre-Columbian Norse House-sites in North America''. St. Martin's Press. New York, NY. 1969. *Wahlgren, Erik. ''The Vikings and America''. Thames and Hudson, Inc. New York, NY. 1986. *Wooding, Jonathan. ''The Vikings''. Rizzoli International Pub. Inc. New York, NY. 1997.''

External links

Overviews and data

www.disko.gl
Site with information and interactive maps of the Disko Bay area.
Daily updated satellite images from Disko Bay

Government

Avannaata
Official Avannaata municipal and city website
Qeqertalik
Official Qeqertalik municipal and city website

Maps

*
Phytoplankton Diversity in Disko Bay
at the

NASA Earth Observatory NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information pertaining to the climate and the environment which are being provided by NA ...

News and media

Google news Disko Bay

GEUS Maps of the Disko Bay area

Travel

Kangia - Ilulissat Icefjord
Official website
North Greenland entry at Visit Greenland
nbsp;– the official Greenlandic Tourist Board tourism website
A Photographer's View of Disko Bay
Documentary produced by Florent Piovesan {{Authority control