Summary
Groundfish fisheries
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Extract
Bottomfish brouhaha.
The crisis in the North Pacific can be narrowed down to a Gordian tangle of economic, social, biological and political issues. Who has rights to take America's largest remaining commonly owned fish resource, and who should be excluded? Should a big-money boat from Ballard, Wash., be allowed to take more fish from a bay 50 miles out of Kodiak than is a second-generation Kodiak fisherman? Should halibut longliners lose some of their fish to other fishermen who catch halibut incidentally by the thousands? Should limited entry be imposed, giving fishing rights only to those companies smart or flush enough to get into the bottomfish boom before the door slams shut?
America's got hold of the largest congregation of finfish in the world. Within our 200-mile limit, feeding off the mineral-rich nutrients that make the eastern Pacific continental shelf the most bountiful waters on the globe, an immeasurable biomass of fishes are gathered. And those fish have got us by the gills. Swamped with Success. When the United States claimed ownership of all resources within 200 miles of shore in 1976, the nation captured one of the seven wonders of the fisheries world: billion...See the full content of this document
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