Instead of seeing prices drop when everyone sells their catch at once during a derby, landings would be spread over time and the price would remain stable. Finally, the T in ITQ means they can be transferred, creating a marketplace for the shares, a policy designed to consolidate them in the most economically efficient hands. Transferability would accelerate the slow shakeout of boats and employment occurring around the world, almost instantly creating winners and losers. And in many places, the losers would greatly outnumber the winners. The surf clam fishery was ideal for the ITQ experiment in ways many others are not.
Boats sell only to a few companies that make processed fish products.
Still, its lessons are dramatic. Expenses had gone up, the fleet had become old, boats were unsafe, they'd lost people at sea. There was a knowledge that as things stood, many were going to go out of business. With an overall catch capped to preserve the stock, boats could fish only once every two weeks, for six hours. In Garvilla's case, it was every other Tuesday, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.