Word: alaska
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Despite growing evidence of their effectiveness, catch-share programs are still a relative rarity. Only 121 of the more than 11,000 fisheries Costello and his team studied were using the system. But Gunnar Knapp, an economist at the University of Alaska, says the idea of privatizing fish is catching on as fishermen realize that it may be the best way to protect fish - and their own jobs...
...Take Alaska's halibut fishery, which began a catch-share program in 1995. At the time, the halibut season had become a 48-hour scramble to catch the most fish allowed by law, according to Linda Behnken, director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association and a commercial fisherman in Sitka since 1982. "No matter what the weather was, everyone with a line and hook was going out," says Behnken. "And this is Alaska. The weather gets bad here. Boats went down. Lives were lost." Things got even worse when the fishermen all returned with their catches at the same...
Since the introduction of catch shares, however, Alaska's halibut season has gone from one or two short days to nine months. Fishermen are also less likely to risk bad weather, pushing fatalities down 15%. And because the market is no longer flooded with halibut one week out of the entire year, the price of fish has increased fourfold. "IFQs have made fishing safer," Behnken says. "And it's better for the resource...
...which are stocked with nets and traps, often continue to "ghost fish" after the ship itself has been abandoned. The biggest man-made threat to the endangered monk seal of Hawaii is entanglement in derelict fishing gear, according to Keith Criddle, a marine-policy professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Off North Carolina's coast, ghost crab pots continue to trap and kill diamondback terrapin turtles. In a 2004 report titled An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy found that at least 267 different species were affected by derelict fishing gear, including...
...think this would be a Democratic year,” he said referring to the perceived Democratic advantages this year. But he said, “I think it is going to be very close... I’m cautiously optimistic.” Cellucci called the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin “brilliant.” According to Cellucci, the Republican base wasn’t completely sold on McCain before the pick. With the Palin selection McCain motivated the base of the Republican party, he said. Cellucci also discussed the important role the next president...