After the ship hit a reef and ran aground overnight Wednesday to Thursday, "films of hydrocarbons are visible on the surface of the water in the Nanortalik fjords" in the south, police said.
Up to 20,000 litres (5,300 gallons) of fuel spilled and had reached the fjord despite the deployment of a pump and floating barrage.
Noting difficulties caused by wind, tides and sea currents, the police said the firefighters had received additional equipment to try to contain the spill.
Everyone on board the passenger ship, identified by police as the "Adolf Jensen", managed to evacuate.
Thirty-metres-long (98-feet-long) and flying a Greenlandic flag, the ship was carrying 15,000 to 20,000 litres of diesel fuel in its tanks, in addition to 1,000 litres of engine oil.
The environment and civil protection ministry requested assistance from the Arctic command of the Danish Navy to recover and treat the leaked fuel.
All vessels in the area have been asked by the police to "exercise caution and sail slowly to minimise disturbance to the water".
Contacted by AFP, Rasmus Rasmussen, CEO of the vessel's owner, 60 North, declined to comment.
"I don't comment, I don't know what happened. I must talk to the police and to my crew before," he said.
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