MIKE TAIBBI:

There are efforts here to create more opportunities in the islands, but they have limitations.

This processing and packing plant serves the world's biggest tuna fishery, that produces millions in licensing fees yearly for foreign boats. But there's still no full service harbor here that would allow the Marshallese to support their own fleet of tuna boats, and to catch the fish themselves.

This aquaculture fish farm operation, produces more than a ton of the fish delicacy called moi each week. But it isn't profitable yet, and currently employs fewer than 50 islanders.

And this workshop trains youth in carpentry — crafting the sailing canoes that for a millennium have explored these islands. But those lovely canoes aren't a business so much as an act of devotion.

As for Isaac Marty, he and his son, Isaiah, have been living in Salem, Oregon, for more than a year now, this reunited family striving to be self-sufficient in a new city. They spend afternoons at a sun-splashed nearby park. They have a decent used car, a new apartment, and just enough money for food and a few toys for the kids.