Nuuk Abelsen, the Minister for Social Affairs in the Government of Greenland. Although only a small town, Nuuk has developed trade, business, shipping and other industries. It began as a small fishing settlement with a harbour but as the economy developed rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s, the fishing industry in the capital declined. The port is nevertheless still home to almost half of Greenland's fishing fleet. The local Royal Greenland processing plant absorbs landed seafood amounting to over DKK 50 million (US$7 million) per annum, mainly (80%) shrimp but also cod, lumpfish and halibut. Seafood, including seal, is also sold
Nuuk occupied by the Dorset culture around the former settlement of Kangeq but they disappeared from the Nuuk district before AD 1000. The Nuuk area was later inhabited by Viking explorers in the 10th century (Western Settlement), and shortly thereafter by Inuit peoples. Inuit and Norsemen both lived with little interaction in this area from about 1000 until the disappearance of the Norse settlement for uncertain reasons during the 15th century. The city proper was founded as the fort of Godt-Haab in 1728 by the royal governor Claus Paarss, when he relocated the missionary and merchant Hans Egede's earlier Hope Colony