Hans Island

Hans Island
Disputed island
Native name: Tartupaluk, ᑕᕐᑐᐸᓗᒃ
Other names: Hans Ø, Île Hans

Hans Island from the east (Greenland) side
Geography

Map of part of Kennedy Channel, with the disputed Island.
Location Kennedy Channel of the Nares Strait
Coordinates 80°49′41″N 66°27′35″W / 80.82806°N 66.45972°W / 80.82806; -66.45972Coordinates: 80°49′41″N 66°27′35″W / 80.82806°N 66.45972°W / 80.82806; -66.45972
Area 1.3 km2 (0.5 sq mi)
Length 1,290 m (0.8 mi)
Width 1,199 m (0.745 mi)
Claimed by
Canada
Denmark
Demographics
Population Uninhabited

Hans Island (Greenlandic: Tartupaluk; Inuktitut: ᑕᕐᑐᐸᓗᒃ; French: Île Hans pronounced [il ɑ̃]; Danish: Hans Ø) is a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring 1.3 km2 (0.5 sq mi), 1,290 m (4,230 ft) long and 1,199 m (3,934 ft) wide, located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait—the strait that separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland and connects Baffin Bay with the Lincoln Sea. Hans Island is the smallest of three islands located in Kennedy Channel; the others are Franklin Island and Crozier Island. The strait is 35 kilometres (22 mi) wide here, placing the island within the territorial waters of both Canada and Denmark. A theoretical line in the middle of the strait goes through the island.

The island has likely been part of Inuit hunting grounds since the 14th century.[1] It is claimed by Denmark on behalf of the Greenland self-government and also by Canada.[2] In accordance with the Greenland home rule treaty, Denmark handles certain foreign affairs, such as border disputes, on behalf of the entire commonwealth. The nearest populated places are Alert, Canada (198 km or 123-mile distance, pop. 0 to 5), Siorapaluk, Greenland (349 km or 217-mile distance, pop. 68) and Qaanaaq, Greenland (379 km or 235-mile distance, pop. 656).

Name

The island is named after Hans Hendrik, whose native Greenlandic name was Suersaq. Hendrik was an Arctic traveller and translator who worked on the American and British Arctic expeditions of Elisha Kent Kane, Charles Francis Hall, Isaac Israel Hayes and George Strong Nares, from 1853 to 1876.

Prior to 2005, the island was thought to have been named during Charles Francis Hall's third North Pole expedition between 1871 and 1873. The first written reference to the name and the island itself appears in Charles Henry Davis's book Narrative of the North Polar expedition (1876), which is a narrative of Hall's third North Pole expedition. On page 407 it appears, without any previous mention. The island made its first cartographic appearance on a map accompanying the book.

Charles Henry Davis writes,

The ship was tied to a large floe, and drifted slowly down the channel with the pack; about noon, she was quite near Hans Island and west of it. The latitude by observation was 80° 48′ N; longitude 68° 38′ W. The ship continued to drift, and at 7 p.m. was midway between Hans and Franklin Islands, which are ten miles[3] distant from each other. Soundings were taken at a depth of 203 fathoms,[4] with a bottom of black limestone.

He was referring to the ship Polaris's return voyage southward down the Kennedy channel. This does not answer when it was named. However, the ship's doctor and leader of the scientific part of the expedition, Emil Bessels, wrote of it in his own book, Die amerikanische Nordpol-Expedition (1879). On page 124 he tells that on August 29, 1871, on the voyage north through Kennedy Channel, the Polaris sailed between Grinnell-land (Ellesmere Island) and a small unknown island which they later named Hans Island, after his native Greenlandic helper, Hans Hendrik.

An earlier mention of a Hans Island expedition is in Elisha Kent Kane's Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition, 1853, ’54, ’55, (published 1857), in pages 317–319. Thus the year 1853 is now often cited as the date of the discovery and naming of the island, including in a letter by the Danish Ambassador to Canada in the Ottawa Citizen on July 28, 2005.

We now neared the Litteton Island of Captain Inglefield where a piece of good fortune awaited us. We saw a number of ducks, both eiders and hareldas; and it occurred to me that by tracking their flight we should reach their breeding-grounds. There was no trouble in doing so, for they flew in a bee-line to a group of rocky islets, [..snip..] A rugged little ledge, which I named Eider Island, was so thickly colonized that we could hardly walk without treading on a nest [..snip..] Nearby was a low and isolated rock-ledge, which we called Hans Island. The glaucous gulls, those cormorants of the Arctic seas, had made it their peculiar homestead.

Littleton Island (Greenlandic: Pikiuleq) is approximately 1 km (0.6 mi) from Greenland's coast right in Smith Sound. It is about 300 km (190 mi) south of the island today called Hans Island. Around it and the coast of Greenland lay dozens of tiny Islands, and Kane names one of them Hans Island after Hans Hendrik, the native Greenlandic helper he had with him on the trip. That this is the current Littleton Island is confirmed by Kane mentioning Edward Augustus Inglefield, who named Littleton Island.

The names of many places in this region have changed or been altered during the last 100 years. For example, the name of Nares Strait (named after George Strong Nares), separating Ellesmere Island and Northern Greenland, was not agreed upon between the Danish and Canadian governments until 1964.

History and disputed sovereignty

Early history

Inuit living in northern Greenland or Canada would have known the island for centuries. In the mid 19th century, Nares Strait was likely unknown to Europeans.[5] It is not known whether Vikings visited the island in the centuries when Greenland was inhabited by Norsemen.

From 1850 to 1880, the area in which Hans Island is situated was explored by American and British expeditions. These expeditions were a response partly due to the popular search for the missing British explorer John Franklin, and partly to search for the elusive Northwest Passage and/or reach the North Pole.

The Danish "Celebration Expedition" of 1920 to 1923 accurately mapped the whole region of the Northern Greenland coast from Cape York (Kap York) to Denmark Sound (Danmark fjord).

In 1933, the Permanent Court of International Justice declared the legal status of Greenland in favour of Denmark. Denmark claims that geological evidence points to Hans Island being part of Greenland, and therefore that it belongs to Denmark by extension of the Court's ruling.

Since the 1960s, numerous surveys have been undertaken in the Nares Strait region, including seismic, ice flow, mapping, archeological and economic surveys. Canadian-based Dome Petroleum Ltd. made surveys on and around Hans Island from 1980 to 1983, to investigate the movement of ice masses.

1972–73 border treaty

In 1972, a team consisting of personnel from the Canadian Hydrographic Service and Danish personnel working in the Nares Strait determined the geographic coordinates for Hans Island. During negotiations between Canada and Denmark on their maritime boundary in 1973, both states claimed that Hans Island was part of their territory. No agreement was reached between the two governments on the issue.

The maritime boundary immediately north and south of Hans Island was established in the continental shelf treaty ratified by Greenland and Canada and then submitted to the United Nations on December 17, 1973, in force since March 13, 1974.[6] At that time, it was the longest shelf boundary treaty ever negotiated and may have been the first ever continental shelf boundary developed by a computer.

The Government of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Government of Canada, Having decided to establish in the area between Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Islands a dividing line beyond which neither Party exercising its rights under the Convention on the Continental Shelf of April/29/1958 will extend its sovereign rights for the purpose of exploration and exploitation of the natural resources of the continental shelf…

The treaty lists 127 points (latitude and longitude) from the Davis Strait to the end of the Robeson Channel, where the Nares Strait runs into the Lincoln Sea, to draw geodesic lines between, to form the border. The treaty does not, however, draw a line from point 122 (80°49′12"N, 66°29′00"W) to point 123 (80°49′48"N, 66°26′18"W), a distance of 1,370 m (4,490 ft), because Hans Island is situated in between those two points.[7]

Joint administration

In 1984 Kenn Harper, a historian from Iqaluit, wrote an article about Hans Island which was published in the local newspaper Hainang[8] in Qaanaaq (Thule) in northwestern Greenland. This article was picked up by a Danish newspaper in Copenhagen, and by CBC Radio in Canada.

This article was sparked because of a chance encounter on the ice near Resolute, in the Canadian Arctic in the autumn of 1983. According to Kenn Harper he met a man wearing a hat with bold letters around the side of the hat saying "HANS ISLAND, N.W.T." This man was a scientist with Dome Petroleum who had just spent the summer on the island doing ice research. Dome Petroleum did research on and around the island from 1980 to 1983.

Simultaneously, the Danish and Canadian governments were in the process of signing a cooperation agreement in relation to the marine environment in Nares Strait. The agreement was signed and put into force on August 26, 1983. (The treaty was extended in 1991.)

The Agreement aims at developing further bilateral cooperation in respect of the protection of the marine environment of the waters lying between Canada and Greenland and of its living resources, particularly with respect to preparedness measures as a contingency against pollution incidents resulting from offshore hydrocarbon exploration or exploitation (Annex A) and from shipping activities (Annex B) that may affect the marine environment of these waters.

One of the items also discussed was the possibility of establishing a reciprocal arrangement for processing applications to conduct research on and around Hans Island. This was never signed; however, Canadian John Munro, at that time Minister for Northern Affairs and Development, and Dane Tom Høyem, at that time Minister for Greenland, agreed, in common interest, to avoid acts that might prejudice future negotiations.

However, unknown to the politicians, Dome Petroleum was already doing research on the island. According to Kenn Harper, the Canadian Department of External Affairs conducting these negotiations with the Danes might not even have been aware that Dome Petroleum was already doing research on the island. Kenn Harper claims that in 1984 a senior official of Energy Mines and Resources, Canada, wrote him, saying, "To my knowledge the Department of Energy, Mines & Resources did not confer with the Department of External Affairs over the use of the island by Dome Petroleum."

In 1984, the Danish Minister for Greenland planted the Danish flag on the Island and left a little message saying "Velkommen til den danske ø" (English: Welcome to the Danish Island).[9] It is also said he left a bottle of brandy,[9] however this seems to have been Snaps,[10] which unlike brandy is a traditional Danish spirit. The Canadians have reciprocated with their own sign, the flag of Canada and a bottle of Canadian Club.[11]

Media attention and continuing negotiations

Hans Island. NASA Landsat 7 image

Though CBC and others had done some reporting in the 1980s,[12] the dispute came to popular attention through Canadian press stories during late March 2004. Within days, it spread to other newspapers worldwide.

On March 25, 2004, when Adrian Humphreys of the Canadian National Post newspaper wrote an article entitled "Five-year plan to 'put footprints in the snow' and assert northern sovereignty", Humphreys made a brief mention of the dispute over Hans Island, and that the Danes had sent warships to the island.

The Arctic sea region has long been a subject of the dispute. In this matter, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Russia, and Norway share a common interest because they regard parts of the Arctic seas as "national waters". The United States and most European Union countries, on the other hand, officially regard the region as international waters. Further items in the Canadian media led to the issue being picked up by international news organizations.

The Canadian federal government's 2004 budget was introduced on March 23, 2004, two days before the issue gained widespread attention. It proposed minimal increases to spending on national defence. The issue of Hans Island was raised in the Canadian Parliament by opposition foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day to highlight the government's failure to provide more funding for the military.

A new article by Adrian Humphreys on March 30, 2004, also in the National Post, entitled "Danes summon envoy over Arctic fight—the solution of the dispute is not going to be military", drew even more attention to the issue. The article claimed that Brian Herman, Canada's only diplomat in Denmark (ambassador Alfonso Gagliano having been recently recalled as a result of an unrelated Canadian scandal), was called before the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to comment about his country's intentions in the dispute, which had, according to the article, recently been inflamed by Danish sailors occupying Hans Island.

On March 31, 2004, the Danish and Canadian governments denied that Herman or any other Canadian official was summoned to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both governments stated that the dispute was a long-standing issue, and that nothing had changed in the matter.

A Canadian military exercise, named "Narwhal 04", inflamed the issue further. However, this exercise had been in the planning stage since September 2003, and it took place around Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, 2,000 km (1,240 mi) south of Hans Island. The Canadian military denied that the exercise had anything to do with the Danish–Canadian territorial dispute. The exercise took place from August 9 to 30, 2004, involving about 160 soldiers from the army, various aircraft, helicopters and one frigate, HMCS Montréal. About 600 Canadian Forces personnel were involved in total.

A new development came to light after Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham visited the island on July 20, 2005. Peter Taksø-Jensen, the head of the International Law department at Denmark's foreign ministry, said the following in an interview with Reuters on July 25 in response to the event:

We consider Hans Island to be part of Danish territory and will therefore hand over a complaint about the Canadian minister's unannounced visit.[13]
— Peter Taksø-Jensen, Danish Foreign Office

On August 18, 2005, Canadian frigate HMCS Fredericton left Halifax for an Arctic cruise.[14] Canadian officials said the month-long patrol was unrelated to the Hans Island dispute. The Kingston-class coastal defence vessels HMCS Glace Bay and HMCS Shawinigan were also scheduled to patrol the Arctic in 2005.[15]

In July 2007, owing to updated satellite imagery, Canadian authorities realized that the line constructed as a basis for the maritime boundary (but not for land) would have run roughly across the middle of the island, but the boundary did not "move" as that required a bilateral agreement by the two states for which negotiations continued.[16]

The two countries maintain a sense of humour in the dispute. Peter Taksøe-Jensen has stated "when Danish military go there, they leave a bottle of Snaps. And when Canadian military forces come there, they leave a bottle of Canadian Club and a sign saying, 'Welcome to Canada.'"[10]

Negotiations in 2012 between Canada and Denmark, not yet finalized, call for either a condominium or splitting the disputed island's sovereignty in half.[12][17] If the island were to be split by a boundary, it would create a second land border for Canada and Denmark, each of which currently only has one land border.

Google fight

"Google fight" or "Google war" is the name given to a number of advertisements on the Internet search engine Google which promoted either Danish or Canadian sovereignty over Hans Island.

According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen on July 27, 2005, Toronto resident Rick Broadhead saw an advertisement on Google stating "Hans Island is Greenland. Greenland natives have used the island for centuries" and which linked to a Danish foreign affairs webpage that stated that the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sent a note to Canada's ambassador to Denmark on July 25, 2005 expressing Denmark's regret that "the Canadian Minister of National Defence had paid a visit to Hans Island without prior notification of the Danish Government."[18] Poul Erik Dam Kristensen, Denmark's ambassador to Canada, told the press that the paid advertisement was not a Danish government initiative and whoever placed it was acting alone.

According to the article, this prompted Broadhead to put up his own advertisement on Google which linked to his own site,[19][20] which promoted the Canadian claim to the island, on July 26.

Timeline

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Whose Hans?". Canadian Geographic.
  2. ↑ McKernan, Bethan (13 November 2015). "Canada and Denmark are locked in an adorable war". i100.co.uk. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  3. ↑ 10 mi (16 km)
  4. ↑ 203 fathoms (1,218 ft; 371 m)
  5. ↑ Stevenson, Christopher (2007). "Hans Off!: The Struggle for Hans Island and the Potential Ramifications for International Border Dispute Resolution". Boston College International and Comparative Law Review. p. 265. By most accounts, the first western explorer to discover and name Hans Island was American Charles Francis Hall.
  6. ↑ "Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Government of Canada relating to the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf between Greenland and Canada (17 December 1973)" (PDF). Delimitation Treaties Infobase. United Nations. 13 March 2002. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  7. ↑ "Limits in the Seas No. 72 - Continental Shelf Boundary - Canada--Greenland" (PDF). U.S. Department of State. 4 August 1976. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  8. ↑ Hainang newspaper, Qaanaaq – according to "Newspapers on microfilm", 24th edition, 2004, Statsbiblioteket, Denmark – existed 1964–1982, so it might have been named different in 1984, or it might be a different newspaper altogether.
  9. 1 2 Canada, Denmark agree to resolve dispute over Arctic island, CBC News September 19, 2005 Archived January 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  10. 1 2 Byers, Michael (2009). Who owns the Arctic? : understanding sovereignty disputes in the North (1st U.S. ed.). Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre. pp. 26–27. ISBN 9781553654995.
  11. ↑ "Canada and Denmark Whiskey War Over Hans Island". Business Insider. January 8, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 "April 11, 2012 audio report on Hans Island". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Europe | Canada island visit angers Danes". BBC News. July 25, 2005. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  14. ↑ "HMCS Fredericton leaves Halifax for Arctic patrol". CTV.ca. August 18, 2005. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  15. 1 2 "Canada has claim to Hans Island: Pettigrew". CTV.ca. August 20, 2005. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  16. 1 2 The Canadian Press (July 26, 2007). "Satellite imagery moves Hans Island boundary: report". Cbc.ca. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  17. ↑ Weber, Bob (2015-11-15). "Canada, Denmark should turn Hans Island into a condominium: academics". CBC News.
  18. ↑ "HANS ISLAND: DANISH NOTE TO CANADIAN AMBASSADOR". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Archived from the original on July 30, 2005. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  19. ↑ "Island squabble goes Google". Reuters. cnn.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2005. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  20. ↑ "Hans Island Belongs to Canada". Rickbroadhead.com. July 26, 2005. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  21. ↑ "Hans Island". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2015-11-14.
  22. ↑ Lynge, Mads (25 July 2005). "Josef Motzfeldt: Uforskammet af Canada" (in Danish). Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  23. ↑ "Article about the Hans Island issue – Embassy of Denmark Canada". Ambottawa.um.dk. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  24. ↑ "?".
  25. ↑ "?". Archived from the original on September 18, 2005.
  26. ↑ "Ø-farcen er slut".
  27. ↑ Canada, Denmark agree to resolve dispute over Arctic island Archived December 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  28. ↑ "Geologist to prospect on disputed Hans Island in Arctic". Cbc.ca. August 16, 2006. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  29. ↑ "Canadian, Danish scientists join Hans". globeandmail.com. 15 March 2007. Archived from the original on March 19, 2007. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  30. ↑ "Arctic Weather Station".
  31. ↑ "Canada, Denmark closer to settling border dispute". The Globe and Mail. November 29, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2013.

Sources

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