Greenland economy shudders as shrimp stocks shrink
by Slim Allagui Thu Sep 25, 1:36 AM ET ILULISSAT, Denmark (AFP) – Dwindling shrimp stocks off Greenland’s coast have local fishermen and authorities fretting that one of the island’s main sources of income, known here as "pink gold", could soon vanish. "We must sound the alarm bells because it would be a catastrophe for the island’s economy if the shrimp were to disappear," Helle Siegstad, a biologist who heads up the research department at Greenland’s Institute of Natural Resources (INR), told AFP. … "We really don’t know why the shrimps are becoming rarer," Siegstad said, venturing however to speculate that "it could be due to a combination of global warming and the fact that predators like … cod are moving back into Greenland waters." … "It is necessary that the quota of 150,000 tonnes of shrimp a year be cut by at least 30 percent and brought down to 110,000 tonnes" this year, and that it be cut further next year, she said. If that does not happen the most pessimistic projections say "stocks could plunge to 40,000 tonnes within four to five years," she said. … "Warming of two degrees Celsius has a huge impact," she pointed out, insisting the higher temperatures "explain why the shrimp are emigrating farther north." … "And if we aren’t careful, if we do not give it time to build up its stocks, we will make the cod disappear," she said, blasting a government decision to set an annual catch quota of 15,000 tonnes of cod instead of banning all fishing of the species. The challenge, she said, was "to make sure desperate fishermen faced with declining shrimp stocks do not destroy the re-establishment of the cod stocks."
