{"id":149514,"date":"2026-08-20T17:26:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T17:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/149514\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T17:26:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T17:26:49","slug":"why-whales-are-being-drawn-to-feeding-frenzies-within-arctic-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/149514\/","title":{"rendered":"Why whales are being drawn to ‘feeding frenzies’ within Arctic Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SWNS\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Whales are being drawn to \u201cfeeding frenzies\u201d within the Arctic Circle<\/a> by warming waters, reveals new research.<\/p>\n

Baleen whales<\/a> are taking advantage of a newly opened-up fish \u201cbonanza\u201d in the Greenland Sea \u2013 reaching the Arctic Circle and beyond, according to the study.<\/p>\n

Scientists say their findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, show that while most species suffer from the effects of global warming<\/a>, there are a few lucky winners.<\/p>\n

Professor Mads Peter Heide-J\u00f8rgensen, from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, said: \u201cWe show that rising ocean temperatures and declining sea-ice cover<\/a> have facilitated the widespread occurrence of baleen whales along the East Greenland coast, as far north as 70\u00b0N.<\/p>\n

A humpback whale is seen in the Greenland Sea on Sept. 6, 2023. Fernando Ugarte \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

A fin whale is pictured in the Greenland Sea on Aug. 12, 2024. Fernando Ugarte \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has led to regular mixed \u2018feeding frenzies\u2019 of fin whales, humpback whales, and common minke whales \u2013 species which historically were only rarely observed in coastal East Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof. Heide-J\u00f8rgensen along with colleagues in Greenland, Denmark, and Iceland have documented the latest spectacle of the natural world.<\/p>\n

But they say it could spell major changes up and down the local food chain.<\/p>\n

The Arctic and North Atlantic \u2013 apart from a \u201ccold blob\u201d<\/a> south of Greenland \u2013 are some of the fastest warming regions on Earth.<\/p>\n

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For example, sea surface temperatures east of Greenland have risen by around 2\u00b0C since the 1990s.<\/p>\n

The ice edge in summer retracted far to the north after the mid-2000s, dramatically reducing the extent of pack ice along Greenland\u2019s east coast.<\/p>\n

The research team conducted the first systematic survey by plane of baleen whales up to 30 miles off the East Greenland coast in August 2015 and in 2024.<\/p>\n

A fin whale is pictured in the Greenland Sea on Aug. 27, 2023. Fernando Ugarte \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

They added further airborne observations in the summer of 2022, testimonies from Inuit hunters between 2023 and 2025, and records from ships taking part in North Atlantic Sighting Surveys from 1987 onwards.<\/p>\n

They also analyzed tracks from 15 satellite-tagged baleen whales taken at intervals between 2019 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The team then built a mathematical model to find patterns within this sea of data, using historical measurements from key factors such as sea-surface temperature, salinity, and icepack concentration to explain the variation.<\/p>\n

A fin whale is satellite-tagged on Aug. 17, 2023, in the Greenland Sea. Fernando Ugarte \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

They say the combination of data gives a \u201cunique record\u201d of changes in the abundance of baleen whales in the Greenland Sea over the past three decades.<\/p>\n

The picture was uniform: between 1987 and 2024, there has been a marked change in the occurrence of baleen whales along the East Greenland coast north of 60 \u00b0N and west of 29 \u00b0W.<\/p>\n

For example, ship-based surveys didn\u2019t observe any humpback whales until 2006, while seven sightings were recorded in 2007, 26 by 2015, and more than 150 by 2024.<\/p>\n

A fin whale is seen in the Greenland Sea on July 27, 2023. Fernando Ugarte \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Similarly, sightings of minke whales from the survey vessels were few until 1995, but between 10 and 20 were encountered year-on-year after 2001.<\/p>\n

Ship-based sightings of fin whales also increased sharply from 1987 to the present day.<\/p>\n

In August 2025, a ship\u2019s crew reported meeting \u201cexceptionally large\u201d aggregations \u2013 of up to 50 individuals simultaneously \u2013 of baleen whales along the east coast around 69 \u00b0N, north of the Arctic Circle.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the systematic airborne surveys documented an almost continuous distribution of all three species at the same time between 60\u00b0N and 70\u00b0N in 2015 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Narwhals with their tusks are shown in Uummannaq, West Greenland, on April 18, 2005, in this photo obtained on Aug.18, 2026, from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Prof. Heide-J\u00f8rgensen and his colleagues estimate that altogether, no fewer than 4,000 humpback whales, 6,000 fin whales, and 6,000 minke whales visited the Greenland Sea in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThere is little doubt that the three baleen whale species summering in East Greenland coastal waters do so primarily to feed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team found that the trio of species visit the region mainly to hunt for capelin \u2013 a cold-loving fish and known to be one of their most important prey further south.<\/p>\n

Capelin have recently been shown to have shifted their feeding grounds since the mid-2000s from the relatively warmer waters north of Iceland towards the Greenland Sea.<\/p>\n

The research team concluded that baleen whales have caught up with the shift and \u201cmoved in for the kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

A close view of a narwhal\u2019s tusk as it swims in the waters off Greenland on Aug. 24, 2016, is seen in this image released on Aug. 18, 2026. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

They said there have never been any commercial capelin fisheries in the region, so competition with humans doesn\u2019t seem likely for now.<\/p>\n

Prof. Heide-J\u00f8rgensen said: \u201cEast Greenland is undergoing a major ecological regime shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cIce-associated species such as narwhals are increasingly sharing their habitat with, or being displaced by, temperate baleen whales that generally avoid ice-covered waters.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis marked change in species composition demonstrates how climate-driven changes<\/a> are reorganizing the East Greenland marine ecosystem, potentially with long-lasting consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whales are being drawn to \u201cfeeding frenzies\u201d within the Arctic Circle by warming waters, reveals new research. Baleen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[2676,649,3208,913,57,44868,54,5356,4293,33704,38797,1161],"class_list":["post-149514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-animals","tag-arctic","tag-arctic-circle","tag-climate-change","tag-greenland","tag-marine-life","tag-ocean","tag-research","tag-scientists","tag-study-says","tag-whales","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117129016026299303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}