42 



Pollock politics: a billion-dollar tragedy 



The Seattle Times Friday .^ugusl 14. 1992 



Ross Anderson 



Times editorial columnist 



ALL SCALES and fins 

 and oversized eyes, the 

 Pacific pollock is hard- 

 ly the stuff of 30-5econd 

 sound bites and modem con- 

 gressional campaigns 



Too bad H seems there 



' billK 



upon biliic 



of 



$1 billion 

 nchesi fishery, all based 



them swimming around the 

 Nonh Pacific, which is why 

 they have become the focus of 

 mdustry, the world' 

 in Seattle 



Now something appears to be going tembly 

 wrong on those fishing grounds The industry is 

 careening toward collapse We are about to get 

 another harsh lesson in the politics of narural 

 resources And there's no guarantee we'll even 

 learn from a billion-doUar mistake 



This we«k, three congressional candidates 

 stopped by The Times, and we asked what they 

 would do about the pollock fishery This is 

 something they should be mierested in. since 

 they are campaigning for the 1st Congressional 

 distnct. which may be the most fishenes- 

 dependent in the state Here s what they had to 

 say 



Mark Gardner, a TV guy making his- first 

 political run. said the problem is over-fishing by 

 foreign fleets 



Sorry Foreign fishing boats were booted out 

 of the U S, fishing grounds years ago This is an 

 Amencan problem 



State Sen Gary Nelson, says we just have to 

 "enhance" the fishery - more hatchenes and 

 more fish farms 



Wrong fish Hatchenes and fish farms breed 

 salmon, not pollock Thats like asking a 

 question about cows, and gening an answer 

 about goats 



John Dahl. who comes from a BaJlard 

 hshing family, came closer He wants to change 

 the make-up of the federal council charged with 

 managing inat SI billion industry 



Maybe But that won't do u cither 



Here's the problem: 



Barely 10 years ago. mosi of the U S fishing 

 industry was too busy fishing for high-value 

 salmon and crab to pay anention to all those 

 pollock and other groundfish Bui. with lots of 

 help and money from the federal government, 

 enterpnsing fishermen built the big boats and 

 floating factoncs they needed to exploit the 

 lucrative pollock 



Alas, they built too many boats and fac 



his was inevitable For more than a 

 century, US fishermen have overbuilt and 

 over-fished ever>' species they could find - 

 from Alaska halibut to Atlantic haddock to 

 California sardines 



They do this because fishenes are managed 

 as a "common resource." free for the taking - 

 first come, first served Success is contagious 

 One fisherman does well, and attracts another 

 Eventually, there are too many fishermen and 

 not enough fish. 



Meanwhile, government spends hundreds 

 of millions of dollars to research, manage and 

 allocate the resource, subsidizing the fishermen 

 even as they deplete the resource. 



Econor 



If interesi gruups a 



dismitTCsted. then >i)i. 



tors, good or bad. respond to squeaky wheel'.. 

 to some mysienous mix of letters, phone calls. 

 lobbyists and campaign contnbutions 



If consumers were paying attention, they 

 might register some complaint about a back- 

 ward management system that seeks to accom 

 modate fishermen - never mmd how it affects 

 consumers But consumers are not paying 

 attention 



If environm^tallsts were paying anen 



tion. they might point out that an i 



mdustry already has depleted the c 



fishing grounds of the North Atlantic, and is 



threatening to do the 





other saentists who 

 understand the fish- 

 ing business generally 

 agree on what should 

 be done about this 

 The mam problem, 

 they say. is allocation 



- deciding which 

 fishermen are entitled 

 to catch the fish and 

 which ones are not 



The solution is to 



do It the old-fashioned 



way Sell It We 



should allocate fish 



the way we allocate 



trees or oil - auction 



It off to the highest 



bidder The market- 

 place makes all the 



tough decisions, and forces the winning bidder 



to find the most effiaent way to harvest the 



resource without over-fishing it- 

 There IS a bonus Proceeds from the sale of 



fishing nghts could be used to offset the costs 



of management 



Sure, fish present some peculi 



- moving anjund the ocean, for 

 there are ways to get around that problem 



It's probably too late to try this with 

 established fi&henes like salmon But pollock is 

 ■ new fishery, offenng opportunities to learn 

 from past mistakes 



So why don't we try it'' 



Because the subject never comes up Ask a 

 congressman about auctioning off fishing 

 nghis. and hell sran looking at his watch 

 Suggest It to most fishermen, and they re likely 

 10 loss you overtx>ard 



For 200 years, Amencans have largely 

 Ignored their oceans We are a landward- 

 onenied. t>eef-eating society that believes that 

 seafood comes in sw-ounce cans or frozen bars 

 coated in baner Nobody pays anennon to 

 fishenes management 



For more than a century, 



U. S. fishermen 



have over-built 



and over-fished 



every species they could find 



- from Alasl<a halibut 



to Atlantic haddocl< 



to California sardines. 



■ difficulties 



same in the Pacific 

 But environmentalists 

 have other things to 

 worry about 



If taxpayers were 

 paying attention, they 

 might grumble about 

 spending hundreds of 

 millions on fishenes 



giving away the re- 

 source to fishermen 

 But taxpayers aren t 

 paying attention, ei- 

 ther 



The only voices lefi 

 are those of the fish- 



ermen They wnte the 



letters and make the 

 phone calls They hire 

 lawyers to lobby the key congressmen They 

 organize the cocktail parties tn Seattle or 

 Washington, D C , pumping dollars into the 

 campaign funds of the decision -makers 



Congress, in rum, defers most of the 

 decisions to a narrow-minded, politicaliy load- 

 ed federal council, made up mostly of people 

 who work for fishing companies thai stand to 

 make millions from those decisions 



They're all busy clawing for a larger piece of 

 the pie Colleaively. all this back-room politics 

 can only lead to the demise of the pollock 

 fishery 



Chances » 

 the fishermen 

 Politicians will 

 loss of another 

 on in search of 

 cycle will begin 



e, nobody will notice except 

 By then, it will be too late 

 ssue statements regrening the 

 hile fishermen move 

 fishing grounds And the 



■ Ross Anderson s column appears Fr.oav < 

 editorial pages o' The Times 



