Alaska Seafood Cooperative | 7
ecosystems that help drive the economics
of this industry.
Prior to his appointment as Manager
of the Alaska Seafood Cooperative, Ja-
son Anderson served a regulatory agency
which routinely tasked him as an observer
aboard trawlers where he counted fish; du-
ties essentially born of the government’s
determination to impose quotas. Ander-
son actually helped design the operation-
al framework and management structure
which led to the creation of the coopera-
tive. To explain the benefits of this model,
Anderson shares insight on the disadvan-
tages inherent in the old system. Ander-
son explains that in the race for fish, the
government might open a target alloca-
tion with an associated prohibited species
catch limit, usually halibut or crab, that
are required to be discarded. The fish-
ery would understand there were limits
as to how much could be caught. Yet, for
those who participated, there could only
be focus on the indicated, allocated, spe-
