At one point, within a span of about 10 years, the halibut season in particular went from 60 days down to six. It kept rationalizing and ratcheting down, and people were increasing.... During that time frame—I believe it was 1987; I was not fishing that day—there was a big storm. They lost nine boats. Three people lost their lives.
I do think it somewhat precipitated going to quotas because they saw that. However, I think it was more of a conservation and management tool. It was very hard to manage the resource when you had such short openings.
Just as an aside—as IPHC commissioner—there is a fishery that's open access for halibut southwards. They want to move away because they have 10-hour openings. They are finding it extremely unsafe. They are looking at different alternatives.