Kangaatsiaq is a town located at the southern end of the Qaasuitsup

Qaasuitsup

Qaasuitsup is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. As of January 2010 its population is 17,749. The administrative center of the municipality is in Ilulissat...

 municipality in western Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

. The town received town status as recently as 1986, though as a settlement it has existed much longer. It has 586 inhabitants as of 2010. Nearby settlements are Attu

Attu (Greenland)

Attu is a settlement in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located on a small island on the shores of Davis Strait. Its population is 226 as of 2010...

, Niaqornaarsuk

Niaqornaarsuk

Niaqornaarsuk is a village in the southern part of the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, along the northern entrance to Arfersiorfik Fjord. Its population is 300 as of 2010.- Transport :...

, Ikerasaarsuk

Ikerasaarsuk

Ikerasaarsuk is a village in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland. Its population is 106 as of 2010.- Transport :Air Greenland serves the village as part of government contract, with winter-only helicopter flights from Ikerasaarsuk Heliport to Iginniarfik Heliport and Kangaatsiaq Heliport...

 and Iginniarfik

Iginniarfik

Iginniarfik is a village in the municipality of Qaasuitsup, in western Greenland. Its population is 88 as of 2010.- Transport :Air Greenland serves the village as part of government contract, with winter-only helicopter flights from Iginniarfik Heliport to Ikerasaarsuk Heliport and Kangaatsiaq...

.

Economy

Fishing and seal hunting are the main sources of income for the residents. Kangaatsiaq has a fish factory producing dried fish and shrimp

Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...

.

Facilities

The town of Kangaatsiaq has a supermarket, kindergarten with 26 children, and a primary school (1st to 10th grade) with 150 pupils. A hostel called 'The Lodge' with space for six people is the only accommodation for tourists.

Transport

Air Greenland

Air Greenland

Air Greenland A/S is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, jointly owned by the government of Greenland, the SAS Group, and the government of Denmark...

 serves the village as part of government contract, with winter-only helicopter flights from Kangaatsiaq Heliport

Kangaatsiaq Heliport

Kangaatsiaq Heliport is a heliport in Kangaatsiaq, a village in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland. The heliport is considered a helistop, and is served by Air Greenland as part of a government contract.- Airlines and destinations :...

 to Aasiaat Airport

Aasiaat Airport

Aasiaat Airport is an airport located northeast of Aasiaat, a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland. It can serve STOL aircraft, although there is no deicing equipment at the airport, which is costly and problematic in Greenlandic winter....

 and several villages in the Aasiaat Archipelago. Settlement flights in the archipelago are unique in that they are operated only during winter and spring.

During summer and autumn, when the waters of Disko Bay

Disko Bay

Disko Bay is a bay on the western coast of Greenland. 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 archipelago...

 are navigable, communication between settlements is by sea only, serviced by Diskoline

Diskoline

Disko Line A/S is a passenger and freight ferry line in western Greenland. It was founded in 2004 as a small freight company.- Complementary transport services :...

. The ferry links Kangaatsiaq with Ikerasaarsuk

Ikerasaarsuk

Ikerasaarsuk is a village in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland. Its population is 106 as of 2010.- Transport :Air Greenland serves the village as part of government contract, with winter-only helicopter flights from Ikerasaarsuk Heliport to Iginniarfik Heliport and Kangaatsiaq Heliport...

, Attu, Iginniarfik

Iginniarfik

Iginniarfik is a village in the municipality of Qaasuitsup, in western Greenland. Its population is 88 as of 2010.- Transport :Air Greenland serves the village as part of government contract, with winter-only helicopter flights from Iginniarfik Heliport to Ikerasaarsuk Heliport and Kangaatsiaq...

, Niaqornaarsuk

Niaqornaarsuk

Niaqornaarsuk is a village in the southern part of the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, along the northern entrance to Arfersiorfik Fjord. Its population is 300 as of 2010.- Transport :...

, and Aasiaat

Aasiaat

Aasiaat is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland. Located in the heart of Aasiaat Archipelago at the southern end of Disko Bay. With a population of 3,005 as of 2010, it is Greenland's fifth-largest town.-Etymology:...

.

Wildlife

The area has a rich Arctic wildlife including reindeer

Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

, arctic fox

Arctic fox

The arctic fox , also known as the white fox, polar fox or snow fox, is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. The Greek word alopex, means a fox and Vulpes is the Latin version...

, and arctic hare

Arctic Hare

The arctic hare , or polar rabbit is a species of hare which is adapted largely to polar and mountainous habitats. The arctic hare survives with a thick coat of fur and usually digs holes under the ground or snow to keep warm and sleep...

. Marine mammals include Ringed Seal

Ringed Seal

The ringed seal , also known as the jar seal and as netsik or nattiq by the Inuit, is an earless seal inhabiting the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions...

, Harbor Seal

Harbor Seal

The harbor seal , also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere...

, Hooded Seal

Hooded Seal

The hooded seal is an arctic pinniped found only in the central and western North Atlantic ranging from Svalbard in the east to the Gulf of St...

, Bearded Seal

Bearded Seal

The bearded seal , 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 that refer to its heavy jaw...

, Harp Seal

Harp Seal

The harp seal or saddleback seal is a species of earless seal native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean. It now belongs to the monotypic genus Pagophilus. Its scientific name, Pagophilus groenlandicus, means "ice-lover from Greenland", and its synonym, Phoca...

, Humpback whale

Humpback Whale

The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...

 (typically in summer), Minke Whale

Minke Whale

Minke whale , or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales. The minke whale was given its official designation by Lacepède in 1804, who described a dwarf form of Balænoptera acuto-rostrata...

, Fin Whale

Fin Whale

The fin whale , also called the finback whale, razorback, or common rorqual, is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. It is the second longest whale and the sixth largest living animal after the blue whale, bowhead whale, and right whales, growing to nearly 27 metres long...

, Narwhal

Narwhal

The narwhal, Monodon monoceros, is a medium-sized toothed whale that lives year-round in the Arctic. One of two living species of whale in the Monodontidae family, along with the beluga whale, the narwhal males are distinguished by a characteristic long, straight, helical tusk extending from their...

, and Beluga. When the sea ice

Sea ice

Sea ice is largely formed from seawater that freezes. Because the oceans consist of saltwater, this occurs below the freezing point of pure water, at about -1.8 °C ....

 comes, sometimes Walrus

Walrus

The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...

 and Polar bear

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...

 can be seen.

Birdlife includes raven

Raven

Raven is the common name given to several larger-bodied members of the genus Corvus—but in Europe and North America the Common Raven is normally implied...

, ptarmigan, various species of seagull, eider

Eider

Eiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere....

, king eider

King Eider

The King Eider is a large sea duck that breeds along northern hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia. The birds spend most of the year in coastal marine ecosystems at high latitudes, and migrate to Arctic tundra to breed in June and July...

, guillemot

Guillemot

Guillemots is the common name for several species of seabird in the auk family . In British use, the term comprises two genera: Uria and Cepphus. In North America the Uria species are called "murres" and only the Cepphus species are called "guillemots"...

, falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

, eagle

Eagle

Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...

, snowy owl

Snowy Owl

The Snowy Owl is a large owl of the typical owl family Strigidae. The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organize plants and animals. The bird is also known in North America as the Arctic Owl, Great...

, snow bunting

Snow Bunting

The Snow Bunting , sometimes colloquially called a snowflake, is a passerine bird in the longspur family Calcariidae. It is an arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere...

, arctic tern

Arctic Tern

The Arctic Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America...

, and more.

Population

The population of Kangaatsiaq has fluctuated over the last two decades, slightly decreasing in the last several years.

External links

• Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland − geology of the Kangaatsiaq area
• greenland.com Brief tourist information on Kangaatsiaq.
• www.qulleq.com Kangaatsiaq Tourism.