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Aquaculture developments often create policy conflicts with established fisheries when the two are not coordinated through a common planning framework. The state of Alaska and community-based, fisher-led salmon aquaculture associations have been unusually successful at coordinating, through cooperative management, the traditional salmon capture fisheries and new culture fisheries for pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, despite predictable problems. The Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation in particular has moved from its original involvement in resource enhancement into partnership with the state in harvest planning, allocation, and comprehensive regional planning. Some of the specific economic benefits and the general management benefits of this institutional arrangement are explored. One economic benefit was an 8-year period of price advantage for the association's cost-recovery fish because of large and consistent volume and quality. The ecological, political, and institutional conditions that made these developments possible are analyzed.

The article reports that the British Columbia’s coastal communities that are dependent on fishing for their livelihoods are presently in serious trouble. It mentions that it is impossible for young people to enter the fishery because of the high cost of purchasing or leasing the individual transferable quotas. It further reports thsaat the boat-building, repair and gear supply businesses that service the sector are disappearing.

The article offers the authors' views on fishing in British Columbia. They mention the halibut fishery in the state and the issue of scarcity among fishermen due to depravity which the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) want to do the same to the salmon fishery. An overview of individual fishing quota (ITQ) is also presented.