The Municipality of Hans Island is here!

Prince Tartupaluk from Canada now has a serious rival for his web-based claim to Hans Island, which is called Tartupaluk in Greenland, due to its kidney-bean shape.

A group calling itself the “Tartupaluup Kommunia,” that is, the Community of Hans Island, has mounted a Web site at http://www.tartupaluk-kommune.olesen.gl/ documents/23.html in Greenlandic that explains its sovereign claim to the tiny rocky island between Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

The Web site says “it’s a joke,” but it nonetheless features extensive information about the community’s leadership, photos and news, including an image of what looks like a navy frigate marooned on the island.

Both Canada and Denmark claim ownership of the 1.3-square-kilometre island, which is located between Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

A 1973 map that defines the boundaries between Canada and Greenland, part of Denmark, left Hans Island out of the boundary line, because neither side could agree who owned the island.