Privatizing the Right to Fish: Challenges to Livelihood and Community in Kodiak, Alaska Courtney Carothers School of Fisheries & Ocean Sciences University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 2009

Dissertation Research Overview Privatization of Fishing Rights  Symbolic & Material Transformations I. Discourses of privatization II. Loss of fishing rights in Alaska villages III. Lived realities in Alutiiq fishing communities IV. Possibilities for redistribution of rights

Dissertation Research Overview Privatization of Fishing Rights  Symbolic & Material Transformations I. Discourses of privatization II. Loss of fishing rights in Alaska villages III. Lived realities in Alutiiq fishing communities IV. Possibilities for redistribution of rights

I. Discourses of Privatization Framing of fisheries access privatization is key to understanding debate & impacts Catch Shares Revive Fisheries Science study confirms that this innovative approach is the best way to manage and restore fisheries Catch Shares Revive Fisheries Science study confirms that this innovative approach is the best way to manage and restore fisheries Environmental Defense Fund 2008

II. Loss of Fishing Rights in Villages Why do small coastal communities in GOA disproportionately lose fishing rights? (1,000s)

Halibut IFQ holder survey Sample buyers, sellers, & original quota holders –14% of pop (n = 1,100); 46% response rate –50% of respondents from small, remote fishing villages How do community & demographic variables affect: –Buying and selling patterns –Opinions of privatized access programs

Logit Analysis Relationship between individual attributes and buying and selling patterns? Attributes: –Age –Income –Education –Ethnicity –Residency in small, remote fishing community –Fishing income dependence

Logit Analysis Model the probability that an individual is a seller (not a buyer) Three attributes influence Pr[sell] –Age The older an individual is the more likely s/he is to sell. –Ethnicity Alaska Native quota holders more likely to sell. –Income The lower an individual’s income is the more likely s/he is to sell.

Likert Scale Composite Alaska Native respondents show least support for privatization Respondents who do not identify their community as “fishing dependent” show the most support.

III. Lived Realities in Alutiiq Villages What factors explain trends of loss of fishing rights? How are these changes experienced locally?

Ethnographic Research 15 months ( ) –Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, and Ouzinkie –>150 interviews –71 household surveys –Participant observation –Social network analysis

Larsen Bay 90 people 70% Alaska Native ○ ○ Ouzinkie 190 people 88% Alaska Native ○ Old Harbor 200 people 89% Alaska Native

Dramatic Decrease in Fishing Participation

Why this decrease? “It all started with the permit” Cannery period (1880s to 1960s) –Flexible, informal commercial fishing relationships –Men ran cannery boats; women worked in canneries –System of wages and credit –Labor mobility – crew transition to skipper to owner –Maintenance economy: “getting through the winter”; “not getting ahead of your neighbors”

Privatizing the Right to Fish Access privatization (1970s – present) –Right to fish individualized and commodified –Initial allocation of rights usually to boat owners –Subsequent allocation by market ($$) Economic & social disconnect with cannery period “Before all this Ouzinkie was a fishing community, free enterprise…It was family fishing. (Permits) eliminated all that. (Before) you didn't have to own anything. It worked as a bartering system. You work for the cannery and they took care of you.”

Privatizing the Right to Fish Kin-based fishing not rewarded –Capital investment over labor investment Labor mobility restricted “With limited entry, most of the young people didn't want to be crewmembers their whole lives – they got out of fishing. (It would have) cost them $200,000 to get into the fishery.” Right to fish become alienable  disproportionate rate of sale

Disproportionate Rate of Sale Higher discount rate (Langdon 1980) –Current cash flow more important than future earning potential High-value capital asset detrimental Limited access to collateral, financial institutions, knowledge of programs IRS repossession Other factors –Low wild salmon prices –Exxon Valdez oil spill

Social Change Values –Individualism, competition Status –Labor/class hierarchies –Wealth disparities –“Business style” fishermen gain political power –“Lifestyle fishermen” subordinated (Mason 1993) Economy –Maintenance to accumulation

Social Change The “Lost” Generation “When I was young, I grew up knowing that I’d be a fisherman and I knew one day I’d be a boat owner... Guys growing up today don’t know that; there’s no reason to think they can be boat owners – most of them can’t be.” Elder fisherman in Ouzinkie

Social Change Loss of fishing rights not just income –Loss of identity, meaningful lifestyle, connection to place –New stratification altered community dynamics –Linking of loss of fisheries to increasing social problems –50% decrease in village populations –Impact on subsistence economy

IV. Redistribution of Rights Community-based rights –Community Quota Entity Program Aboriginal claim to fish Social movements Collective planning –Kodiak Island Rural Regional Leadership Forum “Commercial fishing is part of our future” Economic diversification

Summary Complex relationships b/t people, places, & resources Privatization is remaking these relationships Privatization constrains fishing livelihoods and connection to place While effects not entirely predictable, tend to reinforce historical inequities based on class & ethnicity Symbolic/ideological struggle over language, values, and assumptions

Acknowledgements Dissertation Committee: –Eric Alden Smith (University of Washington) –Dave Fluharty (UW) –Ben Fitzhugh (UW) –Jennifer Sepez (NOAA Fisheries) Funding Agencies –National Science Foundation –Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research –Washington Sea Grant Program –Morris K. Udall Foundation

Quyanaasinaq The people of the Kodiak Archipelago –Tribal Councils of Larsen Bay, Old Harbor and Ouzinkie –Mary Haakanson, Phyllis Clough, Mary Barb Christiansen, the Fields, Herman Squartsoff, Angeline Campfield, Jack Wick, Gwen Christiansen, RJ Zeedar