Government shutdown presents challenges to US fisheries

Alaska’s pollock fishery – the country’s largest and most lucrative – has been scrambling to get ready for the season’s opening day on 20 January in the midst of the government shutdown.  Typically, large vessels steam out of Seattle, Washington in early January to scoop up millions of pounds of pollock that have an average first wholesale value of around USD 1 billion (EUR 868.2 million). But the fishery is managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which has been largely paralyzed by…