Giant whales move into Greenland waters as ice disappears

Sea ice has been disappearing from East Greenland, allowing giant whales to take advantage and move in to previously inaccessible areas.

That is the conclusion of a decades-long study that has recorded — and filmed — hundreds of the world’s biggest whales including humpbacks, minke and fin whales, feeding in ice-free seas along the coast in summer.

None of these marine mammals were historically found here as they have been locked out of the coastal waters by ice. Now, as climate change warms the sea and melts that ice, they have adapted.

Scientists describe the result as seasonal Arctic “feeding frenzies” — part of a major regime shift in the ocean environment along East Greenland.

Fernando Ugarte

The change is dramatic: ship-based surveys in the region did not record a single humpback whale sighting there until 2006.

In 2007, seven humpbacks were seen, and by 2024, there were 150 ship-based sightings of these giant whales.

The first systematic aerial surveys of baleen whales — a group that includes fin, minke and humpbacks — off the East Greenland coast were carried out by the researchers during the summers of 2015 and 2024.