There's a bunch of people who like to eat halibut throughout the US of A. Most of those can't charter a boat and go out fun fishing and bring a few home to eat. They depend on others to catch their fish for them so they can eat. My guess is halibut was historically a commercial only fisheries that the sports are trying to privatize for themselves.
Dead wrong. It was a subsistance fish long before it was commercially feasible to haul it all the way back to Seattle to market. Sportfishing was big at an early time.
Quite literally, AK cods were not marketable until they wiped out Grand Banks cod and had to find new sources. That was '90s! Lingcod from AK were not marketable until other white fish got scarce, despite the incredible quality.
