cooperation, competition, and synergy: information‐sharing groups among Southeast Alaskan salmon seiners

The salmon seine fishery of Southeast Alaska is a tightly regulated and very competitive commercial enterprise. Despite relations marked by competition, small groups of skippers cooperate with one another to the extent of sharing information as they scout for salmon just in advance of legal seine periods. This paper analyzes these voluntary action groups in terms of the role they play in helping skippers to discharge their most important responsibility: deciding where to fish. The size, timing of activities, and limited purpose of the groups are then explicated with respect to the cultural ecology of the seine fishery. [maritime anthropology, voluntary action, cultural ecology, decision processes]