“In the past 15 years, we had to move 13 houses – including my dear grandma Edna’s house – from one end of the island to the other because of this loss of land.

“Within the next two decades, the whole island will erode away completely.”

Mr Sinnok said that some of the residents were worried about moving away from the island they have lived on for generations, and fear the break-up of their community.

"All 650 people there are my family. And not being able to see them every day like I'm used to - if I had to move to the city I'd be heartbroken and sad not seeing all of their faces."

But he said everyone was confronted with the reality of their situation every day.

“I lost a loved one,” he told Alaskan radio. “He fell through the ice when him and my dad and a few others went out to the mainland on their snowmachines on the ice to go duck hunting.