“Our fishing fleets have long been sustained through recruitment via family traditions and within working waterfront communities,” said Maité Duquela, coordinator of the National Future Fishermen Coalition, a new workforce development initiative formed by a group of community-driven fishing organizations that are prioritizing access to and training for work in domestic fishing fleets. “The changes we’re seeing in our communities tell us we can no longer rely on our traditions alone.”
Succession planning, the graying of the fleet, and difficulties staffing domestic commercial boats with qualified (or even willing and able) crew have dogged fishing captains and boat owners for years.
Add to the growing list of confounding and compounding problems: widespread gentrification and shoreside development that threaten critical working waterfront infrastructure as well as waterfront accessibility and opportunities for potential future fishermen.
Fishing organizations around the country have been taking on this problem head-on, knowing that local access to sustainable wild seafood depends on the employment of fishermen willing to catch and land it — and viable working waterfronts are the vital corridor.
Representatives from these organizations will discuss new opportunities for workforce development and waterfront resilience at a conference panel at Pacific Marine Expo on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 10:45 a.m. Among the topics they’ll dive into are funding opportunities for programs, including the Young Fishermen’s Development Act, and the importance of industry support to keep these programs running. Several of the panelists are members of the National Future Fishermen Coalition as well as the Fishing Communities Coalition (FCC).
“The members of the Fishing Communities Coalition have been focused on workforce development, accessibility and cultivating future leaders for the industry since the inception of the Young Fishermen’s Development Act about 10 years ago,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, a founding member organization of the FCC. Congress passed the Young Fishermen’s Development Act in 2020 after many years of advocacy from the fishing industry, authorizing a federally funded grant program for leadership and workforce development.
The FCC members’ shared insights helped launch new job development programs around the country, with the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) leading the charge when it launched a Young
“Our programs support active recruitment and training for the next generation,” said Natalie Sattler, communications and program director for ALFA. “Our Young Fishermen’s initiative includes a crew apprentice program that helps young people prepare for and land their first fishing job, annual Fishermen’s Expos, that supports professional development and leadership, a Fishery Conservation Network that engages fishermen in conservation initiatives, and in partnership with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, an innovative loan program that assists Alaska residents in securing access to fishing quota. We are also strong advocates for the Young Fishermen’s Development Act and continue to support increased funding for this important act.”
ALFA’s Crew Apprentice Program prepares greenhorns for their first professional fishing experience and matches them with fishing captains.
“The goal is to help as many young people experience the industry as possible, to understand and appreciate commercial fishing and the commitment of our fishermen to sustainable fisheries,” said Sattler. “Whether they fish for a day, a season, or their entire lifetime after this apprenticeship, we consider their participation to be a success.”
ALFA is also a founding member of the National Future Fishermen Coalition, along with the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance, the New England Young Fishermen’s Association, the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Association, and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.
Though the community-based organizations behind the new coalition are focused primarily on the needs of their local and regional fishing fleets, their leaders recognize that many of those local needs are common to working waterfront communities around the country — primarily securing a future for fishing as a mainstay of domestic food security.
“The Gulf of Mexico makes significant contributions to our domestic supply of wild-capture seafood. What happens to that harvest if our fleets can’t find crews and new captains to run the boats?” said Ashford Rosenberg, who is the policy director for the Shareholders Alliance and runs its Gulf Commercial Fisherman Program, a local workforce development initiative. “Our goal as part of the National Future Fishermen Coalition is to alleviate these problems before they affect the productivity of our sustainable Gulf fisheries and threaten to take a critical component of our food system off the table.”
Andrea Tomlinson, who founded the New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance, includes advocacy, which she sees as the critical component, in her Deckhand to Captain training program.
“It’s difficult enough for the next generation to be able to come up with the capital requirements necessary to become an owner-operator, but young fishermen and women must all focus on becoming advocates for the management and policy-making of their fisheries — they have no unions or lobbyists,” Tomlinson said. “Our program aims to demystify that process and encourage our local fishermen to step into the role of leadership when it comes to regulations and policy making.”
Members of the FCC and NFFC also helped craft the Young Fishermen’s Development Act (which Congress passed in 2020 to authorize a federally funded grant program for leadership and workforce development).
“Funding for this program gives the next generation of fishermen the tools they need not only to harvest sustainable, delicious seafood, but also to participate in the management of their own industry so they may have traditions to pass on to the next generation,” said Martens, of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “We are proud as a Maine-based fishing organization and also as members of the Fishing Communities Coalition to participate in the development of our industry’s future leaders.”
The Young Fishermen’s Grant Program provides annual funding for projects to aid in recruiting and training the next generation of fishermen. The program is housed under the Department of Commerce through NOAA and is administered by the National Sea Grant Office, which awards funds to state Sea Grant offices and local partner organizations.
This year, the program had funding for four projects at up to $400,000 each (in addition to a 25 percent non-federal match requirement). The awards went to two programs in Maine — the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries’ Eastern Maine Skippers Program and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association — as well as two programs to the West Coast under Sea Grant extension offices in Washington state and California.
As it stands, FY26 is the last year of funding, unless Congress votes to continue to fund the program.
“Our waterfront communities have been experiencing significant changes, including in coastal planning and regulations, commercial and industrial developments, population composition, and in oceanic-climate patterns,” said Duquela of the National Future Fishermen Coalition. “We need to dedicate ourselves to opening doors and shaping a better future for the next generation of commercial fishermen and women.”
