Fishbanks

Welcome to the world of Fishbanks, a once-thriving global fishery where ocean waters teem with opportunity—and danger. You and your team run a fishing company with one goal: maximize your net worth before the end of the game. You start with a small fleet and access to two rich fishing grounds—the coastal waters and the deep sea. The fish stocks seem healthy. Profits grow quickly. Market values soar. And everyone around you is expanding fast.

At first, it feels like a gold rush. Every additional ship brings in more catch. Every year your fleet grows, and so does your confidence. Catch per boat is high, profits are strong, and your balance sheet looks unbeatable. The competitive pressure becomes overwhelming: If we don’t expand, someone else will take the fish first.

But below the surface, something begins to shift.

As the simulation progresses, the fishery spirals out of control. Teams desperately try to negotiate catch limits or quotas, but disagreements over fairness and strategy derail any meaningful cooperation. Some defect. Some blame others. Some argue the problem isn’t real yet. But the ecosystem’s feedback loops—are already far ahead of you.

By the time everyone agrees that collapse is imminent, it is too late. The fishery flatlines. Profits evaporate. Ship values crash and teams see their net worth plunge.

In the last moments of the game, participants see their results replayed on the dashboard—fleets expanding, stocks collapsing, profits flipping negative—all matching real-world patterns from Atlantic cod and North Sea herring fisheries

Through this experience, players learn one of the most powerful lessons in sustainability and strategy:

Good intentions cannot overcome a broken system—only good structure and governance can.