Part 2: David K. Evans' paper "Recent Sociocultural Change in Roatan, Honduras" from 1979

Roatan’s economy today is quite diverse, tourism and diving usually come to mind. But just a few decades ago, life on the island revolved around very different industries, coconuts, shrimp, and eventually overseas jobs.

According to David K. Evans, coconut harvesting was once the main source of income across the Bay Islands. Families who owned land with coconut trees could count on steady harvests, selling their crops for export, often through contracts with Miami importers. In the 1960s, Evans notes, thousands of coconuts left French Harbour every two weeks during peak season. For poorer residents, especially Black families who didn’t own much land, coconut season was one of the few times they could earn cash, collecting, husking, or shipping coconuts. Evans describes these harvests almost as community-wide events, when boats loaded with coconuts returned before Christmas, bringing not just wages but also imported goods like radios, clothes, and holiday treats.

But by the 1970s, this coconut economy began to collapse. A blight was killing older coconut trees, and a new industry was rising fast: shrimp fishing. Evans observed that shrimp trawlers, many connected to U.S. companies, started to dominate the docks in French Harbour. Shrimp quickly replaced coconuts as the island’s main cash generator, providing more consistent jobs but also shifting economic power toward those with access to boats and international markets.

Alongside shrimp, overseas employment became another lifeline. By 1975, Evans recorded at least 46 men from French Harbour working abroad, most with U.S. shipping companies. Families relied heavily on remittances, monthly checks that kept households afloat, paid for imported goods, and sometimes even supported education for younger relatives abroad. This system meant that many white island families, in particular, could maintain a higher standard of living, while poorer Black families continued to struggle with limited opportunities.

Tourism, still in its early stages at the time Evans was writing, was already seen as the next big change. He suggested that as more tourists discovered Roatan and more money flowed into the shrimp industry, traditional practices like child lending and coconut harvesting would fade into history, replaced by wage labor and service jobs tied to the global economy.

What Evans’ study makes clear is that Roatan’s economy has always been tied to forces beyond the island — whether it was exporting coconuts to Miami, crewing ships abroad, or serving tourists on West Bay. Each wave of change brought opportunities, but also new inequalities, as not everyone had equal access to land, boats, or overseas work.

Looking back through Evans’ 1979 lens, we can see how the island’s shift from coconuts to shrimp, and eventually to tourism, wasn’t just about jobs. It was about identity, community ties, and who had the power to shape Roatan's future.