"Arctic"
This Connection has a "definitional" and/or "assignment" issue
The current definition is "
Sites that are located north of the Arctic Circle" and it
"belongs to the Geography Connections"
The Arctic Circle is currently located at c 66.33 north - its location defined as being where
"the northernmost point at which the noon sun is just visible on the northern winter solstice and the southernmost point at which the midnight sun is just visible on the northern summer solstice"But Kujataa is located surprisingly far south at c 60.99 (though the many icebergs littering Tunulliarfik Fjord might suggest otherwise!) - this places it on approximately the same latitude as Bergen (60.39) and UK's Shetland islands (60.53)
Red Bay Whaling station is situated even further south at 51.73.
These 2 WHS clearly don't meet the current definition. But there are other definitions for "Arctic" - Wiki mentions
"the region where the average temperature for the warmest month (July) is below 10 °C (50 °F); the northernmost tree line roughly follows the isotherm at the boundary of this region". This climatic definition would just include Kujataa (9.5) but NOT Red Bay (12.0).
A mistake has clearly occurred with Red Bay which is in no way "Arctic" - this seems to have originated in the ICOMOS AB evaluation which states-
"Red Bay provides the earliest, most comprehensive and best preserved testimony of a pre-industrial whaling station in the Arctic zone". This statement is NOT Made in Canada's Nomination file which merely mentions that the area gets Arctic pack ice drifting south and the vegetation is primarily "Arctic-Alpine". It might have occurred because the whaling itself took place in the Arctic. Although the coastal area in which it sits is composed of grassland Red Bay also sits a long way SOUTH of Canada's Northern tree line!! ("
The treeline is inland from the shoreline" -
http://bobslabrador.com/places-to-visit/red-bay/ )
There is perhaps more of a debate about Kujataa - Its latitude is far too far south although its isotherm just fits. BUT - it is described by Denmark in the nomination as a "
A sub arctic farming landscape in Greenland". According to the Nomination papers and earlier title was even to have been
"Kujataa – an Arctic farming culture through a millennium"!!! There is no perfect answer to this -except that if Kujataa is to be left in the Arctic Connection then the definition needs to be changed!!