Future Fishermen: Community Recruitment for the Next Generation

“Our fishing fleets have long been supported by recruitment through family traditions and within communities working on the water’s edge,” said Maité Duquela, the organization’s coordinator. National Coalition of Future Fishermena new workforce development initiative by a group of community-led fisheries organizations prioritizing access and training for work in inland fishing fleets. “The changes we’re seeing in our communities tell us that we can no longer just rely on our traditions.”

Succession planning, fleet care and the difficulties of staffing inland commercial vessels with qualified (or even willing and able) crews have stumped fishing captains and boat owners for years.

Add to the growing list of confusing and aggravating issues: widespread gentrification and shoreline development that threaten critical waterfront infrastructure, as well as waterfront accessibility and opportunities for potential future anglers.

Fisheries organizations across the country have tackled the issue head-on, knowing that local access to sustainable wild seafood depends on hiring fishermen willing to catch and land it — and viable working shores are the vital corridor.

Representatives of these organizations will discuss new opportunities for workforce development and waterfront resilience at a conference panel TO Pacific Marine Expo Thursday, November 21 at 10:45. Among the topics they will dive into are funding opportunities for programs, including the Youth Fishermen’s Development Act, and the importance of industry support to keep these programs running. Several of the panel members are members of the National Coalition of Future Fishermen, as well as the Coalition of Fishing Communities (FCC).

“Fishing Communities Coalition members have focused on workforce development, accessibility and cultivating future leaders for the industry since the inception of the Youth Fishermen’s Development Act nearly 10 years ago,” said Ben Martens, the organization’s executive director. Maine Coast Fishermen’s Associationa founding member organization of the FCC. Congress passed the Youth Fishermen Development Act in 2020 after many years of advocacy from the fishing industry, authorizing a federally funded grant program for leadership and workforce development.

FCC members’ shared perspectives have helped launch new job development programs across the country, with Alaska Longliners Association (ALFA) led the way when it launched a Young Anglers Initiative in 2015. Through the initiative, ALFA placed more than 100 fishing apprentices on local fishing boats in Southeast Alaska.

“Our programs support active recruitment and training for the next generation,” said Natalie Sattler, director of communications and programs for ALFA. “Our Young Fishermen’s Initiative includes a Crew Apprenticeship program that helps young people prepare for and get their first fishing job, annual Fishermen’s Expos that support professional development and leadership, a Fisheries Conservation Network that engages fishermen in conservation initiatives and partners with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, an innovative loan program that helps Alaska residents secure access to their fishing quota. We are also strong supporters of the Youth Fishermen Development Act and continue to support increased funding for this important act.”

The ALFA 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 as possible experience the industry, understand and appreciate commercial fishing and our fishermen’s commitment to sustainable fishing,” Sattler said. “Whether they fish for a day, a season or their entire life after this apprenticeship, we consider their participation 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.

Although the community organizations behind the new coalition are primarily focused on the needs of their local and regional fishing fleets, their leaders recognize that many of these local needs are common to waterfront communities across the country — primarily securing a future for fisheries , because a pillar of domestic food security.

“The Gulf of Mexico makes significant contributions to our domestic wild-caught seafood supply. What happens to that harvest if our fleets can’t find crews and new captains to steer the boats?” said Ashford Rosenberg, who is the policy director for the Stockholders’ Alliance and leads the Gulf Commercial Fishermen Program, a local workforce development initiative. “Our goal, as part of the National Coalition for Future Fishermen, is to mitigate these issues 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 a critical component, in Training program from deckhand to captain.

“It is difficult enough for the next generation to come up with the capital requirements 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 – have no unions or lobbyists,” Tomlinson said. “Our program aims to demystify this process and encourage our local fishermen to take a leadership role in regulation and policy-making.”

FCC and NFFC members also helped craft the Youth Fishermen Development Act (which Congress passed in 2020 to authorize a federally funded grant program for leadership and workforce development).

“Funding this program gives the next generation of fishermen the tools they need to not only harvest sustainable and delicious seafood, but to participate in managing their own industry so they have traditions to pass on to the next generation.” he said. Martens, of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “We are proud as a Maine fishing organization, and also as members of the Coalition of Fishing Communities, to participate in developing the future leaders of our industry.”

The Young Anglers Grants Program provides annual project funding to help recruit and train the next generation of anglers. The program is hosted by the Department of Commerce through NOAA and administered by the National Sea Grant Office, which awards funds to state Sea Grant offices and local partner organizations.

This year, the program awarded funding for four projects of up to $400,000 each (in addition to a 25% non-federal matching requirement). The awards went to two Maine programs — the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries’ Eastern Maine Skippers Program and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association — as well as two West Coast Sea Grant programs in Washington state and California.

Currently, FY26 is the last year of funding unless Congress votes to continue funding the program.

“Our waterfront communities have experienced significant changes, including in coastal planning and regulation, commercial and industrial development, population composition and ocean climate patterns,” said Duquela of the National Coalition of Future Fishermen. “We must dedicate ourselves to opening doors and shaping a better future for the next generation of commercial fishermen and women.”