2002 ARCSS All-Hands Workshop

Local Dimensions of Climatic Change: West Greenland's Cod-to-Shrimp Transition

Lawrence C. Hamilton¹, Benjamin C. Brown^2
1Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA, Phone 603-862-1859, Fax 603-862-3558, Lawrence.Hamilton@unh.edu
²Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA, Phone 603-862-0765, Fax 603-862-3558, cliff.brown@unh.edu

The rise and fall of West Greenland's cod fishery, ca. 1920–1990, reflects interactions between climate, ecosystem and society. The fishery arose when the Irminger Current brought in cod and allowed spawning off West Greenland. Cod became a mainstay of the economy, but this fishery declined steeply in the 1960s, then vanished a few decades later. Overfishing together with climatic change drove down the cod stocks. Social factors filtered the consequences for Greenlanders.

As cod declined, shrimp fishing expanded steadily and became the export pillar of Greenland's economy. Some communities benefitted, while others were set back. In the cod-to-shrimp transition, we see two patterns that characterize the human dimensions of climatic change:

• Complex interactions between physical, ecological and social systems;
• A prominent role played by social capital.

Return to Abstracts page.