By exploring indigenous people's knowledge and use of sea ice, the SIKU project has demonstrated the power of multiple perspectives and introduced a new field of interdisciplinary research, the study of social (socio-cultural) aspects of the natural world, or what we call the social life of sea ice. It incorporates local terminologies and classifications, place names, personal stories, teachings, safety rules, historic narratives, and explanations of the empirical and spiritual connections that people create with the natural world. In opening the social life of sea ice and the value of indigenous perspectives we make a novel contribution to IPY, to science, and to the public

By exploring indigenous people's knowledge and use of sea ice, the SIKU project has demonstrated the power of multiple perspectives and introduced a new field of interdisciplinary research, the study of social (socio-cultural) aspects of the natural world, or what we call the social life of sea ice. It incorporates local terminologies and classifications, place names, personal stories, teachings, safety rules, historic narratives, and explanations of the empirical and spiritual connections that people create with the natural world. In opening the social life of sea ice and the value of indigenous perspectives we make a novel contribution to IPY, to science, and to the public.

This volume presents the results of an interview survey on the catch of polar bears in Northwest Greenland between 1952 and 2005. The results are based on detailed descriptions of 588 subsistence catches by Inuit polar bear hunters. The rationale for this study was the indication from hunting statistics suggesting that the catch of polar bears in Northwest Greenland had increased since the early 1990s. This change occurred simultaneously with marked changes in weather conditions and sea ice cover in Northwest Greenland. The information provided by seventy-two experienced polar bear hunters living in the Qaanaaq and Upernavik areas offers a detailed and unique account of polar bear catch, polar bear biology, climate change, and the effect of these changes on both the species and the subsistence hunt.

This volume presents the results of an interview survey among Greenland subsistence hunters on walruses and the catch of walruses in West and Northwest Greenland. In these areas, the catch of walruses is still an important part of the traditional subsistence hunting culture. The Greenland walrus hunting grounds have experienced marked environmental changes due to climate change and quotas were introduced for the catch across all of Greenland in 2006. Thus, we wanted to explore how these changes had affected the local communities by interviewing seventy-six experienced walrus hunters living in twenty-two settlements and towns along the ca. 1,700 km coast from Maniitsoq in the south to Siorapaluk in the north. The interviews resulted in a wealth of detailed information about how climate changes and introduction of quotas have affected the walruses and the walrus hunting practice. The main text summarises the broad findings while more details are provided in the individual hunter statements in four appendices.