Bristol Bay, Alaska, is the most bountiful source of sockeye salmon in the world. In 2023, the Bristol Bay salmon fishery harvested 40.6 million sockeye salmon for a total value of nearly $117 million, and has historically provided over 50% of the worldwide supply of the fish. In order to maintain a sustainable population, the fishing season is restricted to just 6 weeks, and boat length is restricted to 32 feet to discourage over-fishing.
However, these indirect regulations on the total catch have presented opportunities for some rent sea-king behavior. Fisherman must race from the docks to the fishing grounds, and once they are out there they battle dangerously – veering wildly towards each other, crowding the waters and tangling their nets together, all of which reduces fishing efficiency. Additionally, the boat length restriction didn't account for all dimensions, and so fisherman began investing money into building upwards instead of outwards – the two boats pictured below are both 32 feet long for example:
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| 5'11 vs 6'0 |
A potential solution to these issues introduced by the regulatory catch restrictions could be to instead allocate quotas on catch amounts through auction. Similar to the auction we ran in class, this approach would better select the fishermen with the greatest benefit of salmon production without any of the aforementioned wasteful and dangerous activities.
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