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  Af Noah Mølgaard 25-06 2010 - 19:46

Eastern Greenland communities are being given a hand on their way to self-sufficiency thanks to help from western Greenlanders who export shark to Iceland.

Shark fishermen from the west coast town of Qaarsut are in currently in Tasiilaq to instruct fishermen there how to catch Greenland shark and prepare the hides and meat for shipping across the Denmark Strait to Iceland.

“So far it is going well,” said Ludvig Hansen of national fishing and hunting association KNAPK.

So far, he said, five of the 4.5-metre sharks had been landed using lines baited with up to ten hooks. The catch would have been higher, but one of the lines had been lost after it hooked more sharks than it could hold.

Qaarsut, on the Uummannaq Fjord, has been fishing for Greenland shark for a number of years. And according to an agreement with the Icelandic company that purchases their catch, the sharks from eastern Greenland will be sold to an exporter, Greenland Company.

The agreement will also see any money earned from the pilot project in Tasiilaq donated to children’s charities in eastern Greenland.

In Iceland, the meat is eaten, while the highly durable hides are used to sole shoes.