July 25, 2019 — As any commercial fisherman knows, fishing is a risky business. Fluctuations in markets, regulations, fish populations and the weather — not to mention the climate’s growing volatility — can result in fluctuating income that can threaten a fisherman’s livelihood.
Buffering against these fluctuations might mean taking a page from another risky business: the stock market.
A growing body of research is showing that, in most cases, fishermen are more likely to have stable year-to-year incomes if they diversify their fishing portfolios, much like an investor would diversify a stock portfolio, giving them a safety net to weather whatever the year brings.
“It can really pay for fishermen to diversify,” said Anne Beaudreau, a fisheries professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
But there’s a surprising and troubling hitch to the promise of diversification. Alaskan fishermen are trending in a different direction — fewer people are fishing, and they are fishing fewer types of fish.