The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

1990s. Due to expansion in other occupations the fishery’s share of the
Greenlandic GNP was not that high, although it grew in the eigthies and
nineties.
Research Prospects
The development in the fisheries after 1951 is well documented in
Mattox (up to 1968), and in a modern statistical apparatus. Other issues
relating to a fishing society are only treated sporadically. In writing this
paper, I have made two minor investigations into the question of how
much fishery problems concerned Greenlandic politicians.
The minutes from the Country Council in Greenland were examined
to single out the items on the agendas relating to the fishery. The results
in the following figures underestimate its importance because they only
count items with fishery mentioned in the title. Beyond that, fishery was
strongly presented in all items concerning general industry and
development plans. In figure 2 only the items which had fishery as part
of their title are shown. The figure highlights three points. 1) The items
specifically related to the fishery vary between 5 and 15% of the
Council’s business during this period. 2) Coverage differed considerably
from year to year. 3) From the end of the sixties a shift to a lower level
took place. The minutes from the Country Council thus contain sufficient
evidence to scrutinize the Greenlandic attitude to the fishing industry.
Figure 2. The Country Council, Greenland. Agenda: Items on fishery
Source: Examination of 2,830 items on the agendas of the Greenlandic Country Council
1951-1978.
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