Post-rationalization restructuring of commercial crew member opportunities in Bering Sea and Aleutian Island crab fisheries

Abstract

This report examines how employment opportunities for commercial fishing vessel crew members have changed in the BSAI crab fisheries following the implementation of a catch shares style of management system by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Based on hundreds of hours of ethnographic interviews with current and former crew members, captains, boat owners, processing plant employees, and other stakeholders, the analysis examines the effects of rationalization on many aspects of crew employment, including geographic distribution of jobs, the number of crew jobs available, the types of crew positions on a vessel, the decision making processes of potential crew job-seekers, the structure of compensation of crew, the effects of leased quota on crew compensation per unit of effort, the scheduling of deliveries to shore-based processing plants and the effects of local sources of alternative employment on crew. The conclusions regarding these aspects of crew of employment are followed by recommendations for further social science research on issues raised in this report. 

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