Student story: Selin Koca Nesting fieldwork for Pinngortitaleriffik in Nuuk

It has been three amazing months filled with fieldwork in the beautiful Greenlandic nature and a different everyday life in Nuuk, where vegetables are expensive, but you can instead buy reindeer and musk ox in the freezer section at Brugseni – the Greenlandic way of saying Brugsen.

The fieldwork has been very diverse. We have been fishing, examining stomach contents and morphology of various bird species, collecting water samples from a boat, conducting behavioural observations of birds, and measuring streams. I have learned, among other things, that seasickness pills should always have a permanent place in my bag. My favourite field location was the beautiful Qooqqut, where we collected insects and took samples from the area’s streams.

An important part of the stay has also been the people I have met. I lived with two archaeology students and one who worked at the local free school. This led to many interesting conversations and new perspectives on everyday life in Greenland. In our team at the Institute, there were also students from Germany, Norway, Belgium, Canada, and New York, and I now feel like I have friends all over the world.

We were also lucky that SILA, Greenland’s own biology programme, had its very first class while we were there. It was fantastic to meet young people with a Greenlandic background who are passionate about nature and its future. We quickly agreed that if we ever visit each other’s cities, the door will always be open.

During my stay, I met many interesting researchers, including in whale research, and one of these contacts has now become part of my upcoming thesis on DNA in pilot whales. I am convinced that Greenland will have a central role in the future, both because of climate change and the great international interest. That is why I am especially proud to have had the opportunity to experience Greenland both locally and academically at this stage in my education.

The courses have given me new knowledge that I have already used. Recently, I got a job as a student assistant at SEGES thanks to my experience with streams, and my upcoming thesis project is something I would never have found without my study stay in Greenland.

I am deeply grateful for the north2north scholarship making it possible for me, as a student, to live and study in a country where both living expenses and flight tickets are otherwise expensive. It has been an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life.