Question

Alaska king crab fishing in the 1960s and '70s was a dangerous but rich fishery. Boats from as far away as California and Japan braved the treacherous Gulf of Alaska crossing to reach the abundant king crab beds in Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay. Suddenly, in the early 1980s, the fishery crashed due to over fishing. All crabbing in those areas ended. To this day, there is no crabbing in Bristol Bay or Cook Inlet. a. How would an economist explain the decline of the Alaska king crab fishery? b. Explain two programs you could institute to protect the fishery and still allow some crabbing again. c. Canadians have been very successful in farming salmon in coastal fiords along the coast of British Columbia. Why have they been successful with salmon when the crab fishery crashed?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

a. The crabs are a Common Good. They means can run out of supply if their use gets too much by society. Therefore, the decline of the Alaska king crab fishery can be explained by stating that the plenty types of boats such as those from California and Japan, has caused people to overfish, excessive fishing has brought about a decline in the supply of crabs.

b. There are 2 ways to avoid this

1. fishing permits have to be sold to the fishermen coming to fish for the crabs. Then the persons with the highest willingness to pay will come and buy the permits to fish.

2. Issuing just a particular amount of permits this would cause the fishermen to trade these permits. These open-market strategies have proved to be effective in organizing economic activity and are good stimulators in an economy.

c. They have been successful because regulations have been placed on fishing by the government. Also, if there are restrictions on other countries using up their spots and Canadians are the only ones fishing salmon, then there will be reduction in the decay rate of the population of the salmon, the salmon can easily repopulate, then Canadians would be able to come back the next year to fish again..