Word: overfishing
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Fortunately, scientists are figuring out ways to fish sustainably. One method is a quota system that guarantees individual fishermen or cooperatives a prearranged share of the total catch for, say, Alaskan halibut. These catch shares eliminate the incentive to overfish. And a recent study in Science found that catch shares can halt fishery collapses--defined as fish populations falling to 10% of historic highs--and even reverse the trend over time. "It's truly a win-win situation," says Steven Gaines, a marine biologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara and one of the study's co-authors...
...pollack harvest may be huge, but that doesn't mean the fish is still abundant everywhere. If commercial fishermen overfish a spot near nursing sea lions, both mothers and pups can starve. That's why the Trustees for Alaska, a public interest law firm, has sued the U.S. government for failing to protect areas vital to endangered marine mammals. The group's litigation director, Peter Van Tuyn, points out that in southeast Alaskan waters, where there is little industrial fishing of pollack, the sea lion population has held up relatively well. And fur seals in the Pribilofs have done better...
...pillaged by those with access to it because, where individual and group incentives collide without coordination and enforcement, the individual incentive reigns supreme. Although all nations with rights to fish in the area have a group interest in sustaining the fishery, each individual nation has an incentive to overfish, so long as all others play by the rules. This dynamic produces a downward spiral that results in the destruction of the resource...
This fall Hokkaido's farmers suffered their worst crop failure in 42 years. Hokkaido's fishermen were doing just as badly: harried by Russian gunboats from the Kurile and Sakhalin islands, they were desperately forced to overfish their own meager waters...
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