For centuries, Alaskans relied on salmon and other freshwater fish for protein, oil, and other nutrients. But when jetliners began flying tourists who love fishing from Seattle to Anchorage in the 1950s, the stock of Alaskan salmon began falling. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game had concerns about the high fraction of young salmon caught before they could reproduce. Following the advice of environmental scientists and economists, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduced restrictions on the minimum size (28 inches) and the number of salmon caught (5 per day). Among their concerns was the high fraction of young salmon caught before they could reproduce.
a. Alaskan salmon are a ____.
b. In addition to restricting the number of salmon caught and imposing minimum size limits, which of following are suitable policy interventions to deal with this market failure?
The government could :.
i. allow only Alaska residents to purchase fishing permits.
ii. increase the cost of fishing permits for sport fishers.
iii. decrease the number of fish allowed for commercial fishers.
iv. limit the fishing season to only certain times of the year, i.e., prohibit fishing during spawning.

When a good is said to be rivalrous, it means that consuming them reduces the supply left for others. When salmon, especially the younger ones, are fished, it will reduce the supply of salmon remaining which makes salmon a rivalrous good.

Salmon is also a non-excludable good which means that everyone has access to it which is why people could fly in from Seattle and still be able to fish salmon in Alaska.

b. The government could do all of the options listed in b.

Allowing only Alaska residents to fish would keep salmon stock healthy as Alaskan residents have managed to do so for centuries.

People who fish just for sport should be made to pay more for fishing permits to discourage them from reducing salmon stock for sport.

Commercial fishers should be limited in the number they can fish.

The fishing season should not be all year round but rather only in certain periods, especially after the salmon has had time to repopulate.