In rural Alaska, the spoils of the sea set village against village

A generation ago, organizers envisioned federally guaranteed shares of the pollock catch that would create a rising tide of funds to lift up poor, isolated villages where jobs and hope are scarce… Pollock did succeed, wildly. The dollars hat flowed into the Community Development Quota Program, as the catch-share system was called, created a hydra-headed nonprofit money machine. Six nonprofit groups arose on the Bering Sea shore, and they have invested mightily in ships, real estate and processing plants. Over two decades, the groups amassed a combined net worth of $785 million… But the results on the ground, in rural community and economic development, have been deeply uneven, and completely nonexistent for many people who still gaze out to the blinking lights of the factory ships and wonder what happened. continued@NYT

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