Case Study #2: Protecting Fisheries in Alaska
The Problem: Overfishing of Halibut

So Alaska's coastal waters have provided bountiful fishing for halibut for hundreds of years, but conditions began to change in the 1970s and 1980s. As the local fishing industry grew in size and sophistication, fishing fleets started pulling larger and larger hauls from the sea. By the 1990s, the halibut population was in serious decline. To protect them, fishery managers placed a limit on the amount of this species that could be caught each season. The reasoning behind the cap was sound: if fewer fish were caught each year, more halibut would remain in the ocean to breed. This would give them time to rebuild their stock, and that would ensure good fishing for generations to come.

Given fewer fish to catch, however, each fishing crew made it their job to catch the largest possible share of that total. The results were a commercial and environmental nightmare. By 1995, the fleets were so proficient catching halibut the official fishing season was reduced to two days. To take advantage of this narrow window, crews went out for 48 consecutive hours, working through the night and - at times - in dangerous weather conditions. Boats and lives were lost. With no time to waste, crews wouldn't bother struggling with tangled long-lines. They would simply cut them loose and cast new ones, even though the old lines continued to lure and kill fish (a destructive process known as "ghost fishing"). There was no time to sort each haul either, so undersized halibut and other species that would normally be released were torn apart and thrown overboard dead or dying. "Bycatch," as these innocent victims are called, is always an environmental cost of fishing, but this cost escalated significantly during the 48-hour season.

The economic impacts were similarly grim. The two-day season meant that fishing crews had to sell their catch in a glutted market and only to the larger fish processors who were equipped to handle such massive hauls. The short season also meant there would be virtually no market for fresh fish - it would all reach markets and restaurants as a frozen product. All of these factors worked together to depress the price of the fishermen's catch.