Greenlander Opposes America Taking Over His Island Because He Hunts ‘Cute’ Whales, Seals
A Greenlander interviewed by The New York Times said he opposes the U.S. gaining control of the world’s largest island because he is “afraid” it would upend his ability to hunt whales and seals. President Donald Trump…
A Greenlander interviewed by The New York Times said he opposes the U.S. gaining control of the world’s largest island because he is “afraid” it would upend his ability to hunt whales and seals.
President Donald Trump wrote in a Wednesday post to Truth Social that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security” and that if the country does not acquire the island, which is currently an autonomous territory of Denmark, “RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!” The same day, the NYT published a story detailing interviews with several Greenlanders opposed to the U.S. taking over their homeland, with one man telling the outlet that he opposes Danish control because Americans think marine mammals are “cute.”
“I hunt whales and seals. In the United States they think whales and seals are cute and shouldn’t be hunted. That’s what I’m afraid of,” Kunuk Abelsen, a resident of Kulusuk — a remote Greenlandic settlement with a population of just 241 — told the NYT.
A website devoted to Greenland tourism describes Kulusuk as “a traditional Greenlandic settlement with hunting and fishing in its heart and tourism in its embrace.”
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which former President Richard Nixon signed into law in 1972, prohibits the unpermitted hunting, harassment, capture, or killing of whales, seals and other marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens on the high seas.