Episode 661: The Less Deadly Catch

By Jess Jiang,

Robert Smith

Published April 11, 2018 at 6:09 PM EDT

Note: This episode originally ran in 2015.

What kind of person would go out in a tiny boat in dangerous weather to catch fish for 24 hours straight? Everyone. Well, everyone in Homer, Alaska.

Halibut fishermen in Alaska used to defy storms, exhaustion and good judgment. That's because they could only fish in these handful of 24-hour periods. It was called the derby, and the derby made fishing the deadliest job in America. But then the government totally changed the system.

Today on the show, the economic fix that made fishing safer. And why a lot of people hate it.

Music: "Everything."

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Jess Jiang

Jess Jiang is the producer for NPR's international podcast, Rough Translation. Previously, Jess was a producer for Planet Money. In 2014, she won an Emmy for the team's T-shirt project. She followed the start of the t-shirt's journey, from cotton farms in Mississippi to factories in Indonesia. But her biggest prize has been getting to drive a forklift, back hoe, and a 35-ton digger for a story. Jess got her start in public radio at Studio 360—though, if you search hard enough, you can uncover a podcast she made back in college.

See stories by Jess Jiang

Robert Smith

Robert Smith is a host for NPR's Planet Money where he tells stories about how the global economy is affecting our lives.

See stories by Robert Smith