TUNU-I EXPEDITION The Fish Fauna of the NE Greenland Fjord Systems

• Main Author: Jørgen Schou Christiansen
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Arctic; Dove Bugt; Godthåb Golf; Greenland; Haug; Jan Mayen; Tromsø; Dove bugt; East Greenland; Godthåb; greenlandic; inuit; Tunu; University of Tromsø
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.474.5768; http://www.mbl.ku.dk/jfsteffensen/TUNU-1-report.pdf

In October 2002, we had a brief opportunity to survey the marine fish fauna in two selected fjords- i.e. Dove Bugt (77 ° N) and Godthåb Golf (74 ° N)- in NE Greenland (Haug et al. 2002). Given the warming trends reported for the Arctic region in recent years, studies of the fish fauna in the fjords and coastal waters of East Greenland pose an unprecedented challenge to Arctic marine biological research. Hence, the “TUNU-Programme ” was coined and the ice-strengthened R/V “Jan Mayen ” at the University of Tromsø constituted the operational base for the “TUNU-I Expedition”. The term “TUNU ” is not another scientific acronym but the Inuit word for “the land at the back ” or- in the modern Greenlandic language-East Greenland. The term “Expedition ” is used instead of the more prosaic “cruise ” since we wish to underline that little or no marine investigations have been conducted in these pristine areas. The Roman numeral marks that this is the first of more planned expeditions.