Perspectives on Business and Economics, Vol. 40

100 balance is achieved when simultaneous TAC limits for prospering species are increased. For instance, the TAC limit for Bering Sea cod has been increased in 2022 by close to 23% compared with the previous year’s values (Sapin, 2021). With rapid fluctuation in climate change affecting oceanic variables, many experts have pointed out the fault of rigid law used by natural resource management bodies, thus are calling for a shift to adaptive management. Adaptive management allows for laws and related policy to be adjusted by resource managers seamlessly as new data become available. While adaptive management has been seen in some instances of Alaskan fishery management, practical and political challenges have limited its growth at higher-level bodies, such as the Alaska Board of Fisheries and the NPFMC, which regulate most of the state’s catch. Many Alaskans are reliant on natural resources for direct consumption and cultural needs as are small businesses, including recreational and sport fishing businesses, all of which could prosper through a more equitable consideration by resource managers if adaptive management becomes standard (Ristroph, 2020). Regulatory instability from transitions in political leadership has added barriers to implementation, especially in federal waters, where over 60% of Alaskan fishery catch is taken by volume (Welch, 2021b). For instance, the Obama administration took steps to develop climate change policy that incorporated adaptive management by means of an executive order that stated agencies should promote “adaptive learning, in which experiences serve as opportunities to inform and adjust future actions.” However, President Trump revoked Obama’s climate change adaptation plan through a later executive order, which was then reinstated under the Biden administration. President Biden’s most recent relevant executive order called for NOAA “to collect input from fishermen, regional ocean councils, fishery management councils, scientists, and other stakeholders on how to make fisheries and protected resources more resilient to climate change, including changes in management and conservation measures” (Ristroph, 2020), an even more specific directive. A practical challenge of adaptive management implementation is that law has precedent to be predictable rather than flexible, so that individuals and organizations can plan their affairs accordingly. Another challenge of implementing adaptive management may be in terms of public participation and compliance. Adaptive management often requires rapid decisions as data become available, which may not leave enough time to get public consensus on a given action. Today, even when there is not a particularly flexible enabling law, some agencies have found ways to work adaptive management provisions into permitting and planning processes. For example, the National Marine Fisheries Service used its authority under the Marine Mammals Protection Act to issue an adaptive management regulation, which broadly expanded the legality of mitigation after initial authorizations (Ristroph, 2020). Due to the rapidity of climate change effects, adaptation is increasingly vital for the various stakeholders of the fishing industry, notably individuals who are directly employed in industry, communities whose economies rely on these resources, and related industrial businesses. For industrial organizations and their employees, flexibility and diversification may become more urgent due to climate-based changes in regulation, which may prompt stakeholders to acquire multiple permits/quotas for differing species and adoption of multifishery capabilities for existing vessels and other equipment. An example of resilience and adaptation of industry recently was seen with the closure of the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery for the 2021–2022 season due to diminished populations. Jamie Goen, executive director of the trade group Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, stated that business operations, such as vessel planning and overhead reduction, were imperative, where 70 vessels had to be taken out of service or altered to target other species, and over 400 crab fishermen had to look for alternative work, because crabbing was their primary income (Hathaway, 2021). While these situations are not ideal, closures are likely to become more common under traditional management, whereas with proactive control through adaptive techniques they are less likely to be necessary. One illustration of adaptive management success in Alaska fisheries pertains to population control efforts for non-native, invasive northern pike in the south-central region of

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