Before 1995 the annual fishing season for Alaskan halibut lasted all of three days. Whatever the weather, come hell or-literally-high water, fishermen would be out on those few days trying to catch as much halibut as they could.rnThose that were lucky enough to make it home alive, or without serious injury, found that the price of halibut had collapsed because the market was flooded.rnLike most other fisheries in the world, Alaska's halibut fishery was overexploited-despite the efforts of managers. Across the oceans, fishermen are caught up in a "race to fish" their quotas, a race that has had tragic, and environmentally disastrous, consequences over many decades. But in 1995 Alaska's halibut fishermen decided to privatise their fishery by dividing up the annual quota into "catch shares" that were owned, in perpetuity, by each fisherman. It changed everything.
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