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Hans Island (Tartupaluk)

A bare rock of about 1.2 km² in the strait between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland. For nearly 50 years Canada and Denmark both claimed it, and their visiting crews swapped flags and left each other bottles of whisky and schnapps. In 2022 they split it down a ravine, giving Greenland its first land border.

Written from cited sourcesLast checked 28 September 2026Suggest a correction

GREENLAND (DENMARK)CANADA (ELLESMERE ISLAND)Hans Island (Tartupaluk)
Border on the island (approximate) 1973 seabed line 1973 seabed lineThe 1973 seabed line (dashed) stops at the island’s shores. The border drawn across it joins those two points; the real 2022 line follows a ravine with a bend in the middle.

See it on the globe:Canada →Denmark →

A gap in the line

Hans Island is a barren sandstone island in Kennedy Channel, about 18 km from both Ellesmere Island and Greenland. Nobody lives there.[2][1] In Greenlandic it is Tartupaluk.[1]

On 17 December 1973 Canada and Denmark agreed a dividing line for the seabed between Greenland and Canada’s Arctic islands.[4] The island sat right on that line, and the two sides could not agree who owned it. So they left it out: the line stops at the low-water mark on the island’s south shore and starts again on its north shore.[2] The waters and seabed around it were settled; only the rock itself was not.[2]

Two claims

Denmark’s case rested on discovery, geology and use. The island was reached in the second half of the 19th century by American-led expeditions that included the Greenlandic explorer Hans Hendrik, and Greenlandic Inuit stopped there when crossing to Ellesmere Island to hunt.[2]

Canada pointed to an 1880 British order-in-council that handed it all British territories in North America not already part of Canada, with “all islands adjacent”. Canadian maps placed the island on Canada’s side of the median line, though satellite imagery later put it in the middle of the strait.[2]

Flags, whisky and schnapps

In 1984 Denmark’s minister for Greenland, Tom Høyem, visited the island and left a Danish flag and a sign saying “Welcome to the Danish Island”. Canada protested. For years afterwards, Canadian visitors replaced the Danish flag with their own and left a bottle of Canadian Club; Danish visitors did the same with schnapps. The press called it the “Whisky War”.[2]

It turned more serious when Denmark sent naval vessels in 2002 and 2003, and in 2005 Canadian soldiers and Rangers raised a flag and an inukshuk, followed by a visit from the defence minister, Bill Graham.[2] In September 2005 the two governments issued a joint statement promising to seek a long-term solution and to keep all contact with the island “low key and restrained”.[2]

Splitting the rock

In 2018 Canada, Denmark and Greenland set up a joint task force. It met in person, then weekly online during the pandemic, and reached an agreement in principle in Reykjavík in November 2021.[2] The agreement was signed in Ottawa on 14 June 2022.[2]

The new border follows a natural ravine that runs the length of the island from north to south.[1] Denmark and Greenland get slightly more than half.[2] Inuit and local people from Greenland and Nunavut keep the right to move freely across the whole island to hunt and fish.[1] The same deal fixed the sea boundary in the Lincoln Sea and an overlap on the seabed in the Labrador Sea.[2] Denmark’s parliament approved it in December 2023.[3]

Timeline

  1. 1880

    British transfer

    An order-in-council hands Canada all British territory in North America not already part of it.[2]

  2. 197317 December 1973

    Seabed line

    Canada and Denmark divide the continental shelf, stopping at the island’s shores.[4][2]

  3. 1984

    “Welcome to the Danish Island”

    Danish minister Tom Høyem plants a flag; Canada protests.[2]

  4. 2005

    Joint statement

    After Canadian flag-raising and a ministerial visit, both sides agree to keep things low-key.[2]

  5. 2018

    Task force

    Canada, Denmark and Greenland start formal talks on their Arctic boundaries.[2]

  6. 202214 June 2022

    Island divided

    An agreement signed in Ottawa splits the island along a ravine.[2][1]

  7. 2023

    Danish approval

    Denmark’s parliament approves the agreement.[3]

More disputed places

Sources

  1. [1]
    Boundary dispute (backgrounder) · Global Affairs Canada · 2022-06
  2. [2]
    “Close, like-minded partners committed to democratic principles”: Settling the Hans Island/Tartupaluk Territorial Dispute · Arctic Yearbook 2022 (P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Rasmus Leander Nielsen) · 2022
  3. [3]
    Greenland officially receives first border on solid land · Polar Journal (Michael Wenger) · 21 December 2023
  4. [4]
    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 · UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea · 17 December 1973

    Points 121–124 give the line either side of the island.

Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.

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