Qeqertarsuatsiaat is a settlement in the Sermersooq

Sermersooq

Sermersooq is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. It is home to Nuuk , the capital of Greenland, and is the most populous municipality in the country, with 21,232 inhabitants as of January 2010...

 municipality, in southwestern Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

, located on an island off the shores of Labrador Sea

Labrador Sea

The Labrador Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It connects to the north with Baffin Bay through the Davis Strait...

. Its population is 235 as of 2010. The Greenlandic name of the town means 'the quite large island'.

History

Qeqertarsuatsiaat was founded by the Danish merchant Anders Olsen in 1754 as a trading post. From there, the KGH, the Royal Danish trading company, could trade skins and blubber from hunters in the area.

In 1815 the last known great auk

Great Auk

The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean...

in Greenland was hunted near Qeqertarsuatsiaat by one of the villagers.

Population

Qeqertarsuatsiaat was losing population in the last two decades: more than a quarter population relative to the 1990 levels, and nearly 10 percent relative to the 2000 levels, and still decreasing.