If you have a big drop in the number of boats, that is going to be an effect, but specifically on the kinds of businesses that supply those boats with what they need to go fishing.

The total value of the crab that was caught is up slightly this year and that total values is being caught by one third as many boats and so what's happening is that the average catch per boat is way, way up.

These are the kinds of things I'm trying to ask people about (to get) as many details as I can find out about the way this fishery works, the way it used to work and how it changed.

My job is to try to document what some of those effects have been and there are many, many sides to the story.

This is a tricky thing to puzzle out. I'm going to try to talk to businesses that are likely to supply boats directly and people on boats and ask them how much they typically spend. Out of that I can make some reasonable estimates.

You would think it's not as dangerous as being out in the street. How could two boats out in the middle of nowhere collide with each other? Because boaters get distracted. They get lost in the feeling of wide openness, and they become careless.