A crab fishing program started in 2005 in Alaske to stop overfishing and ensure fishermens safety has given fishing rights to corporations, put individual fishermen out of work, and risked the marine ecosystem.

The program, called “crab rationalization,” effectively privatized a once-public resource by granting certain individuals and corporations exclusive crab quotas – how much crab they can harvest each year. Grantees received the prerogative to either catch the crab themselves, join a cooperative to pool quotas, or lease or sell their quotas to the highest bidder. Additionally, a handful of major processing companies gained exclusive buying rights to nearly all of crab brought to shore.

[Read](http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3761 “Read the Story”) (The NewStandard)

*In the first season of [The Deadliest Catch](http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html), all of the fishermen who commented had negative things to say about the new program. In the second season of the show, the new rules were in effect, and the fishing season lasted considerably longer than the previous year, but did the accident rate improve?*